Case study schauinsland-reisen🏝️

Who sets out to travel needs the right communication!

With Telekom and VIER ACD: schauinsland-reisen optimizes customer service and integrates Teams-telephony

VIER engage in action

About

migrated users

availability by phone

Maximum

until email processing

Challenge

Significant customer growth!

The tour operator schauinsland-reisen GmbH is successful and has grown its customer base considerably – the technical infrastructure, consisting of various IT systems, contact center solutions and different service numbers, had to grow accordingly. “We now have almost twice as many guests per year as we did ten years ago,” says Ralf von der Heyden, Head of Reservations, explaining the challenge. “Because we don't just want to grow, we also want to offer our sales partners the best possible service at all times.”

Every day, schauinsland-reisen receives more than 1,500 calls. In addition, there are between 700 and 1,000 emails every day, “all of which are processed within 24 hours,” says von der Heyden. Schauinsland-Reisen has therefore invested in the expansion of its technical infrastructure together with Deutsche Telekom and its partner VIER, which has been certified as a zero-outage partner of Deutsche Telekom since May 2023, and at the same time implemented the integration of MS Teams.

What solution does VIER offer?

schauinsland-reisen + VIER

High quality and all-round safety

In recent months, schauinsland-reisen has revised all communication channels during ongoing operations and transferred them to an integrated overall solution. With the cloud-based VIER ACD, for example, call routing has been optimized while accessibility via email and chat has been further improved. The tour operator also relies on the multichannel platform from VIER partner Inexso. The processing of e-mail inquiries is thus seamlessly integrated into the overall customer service and is completely traceable. Customer contacts are collected across all channels, processed and enriched with data from connected third-party systems.

The operational cooperation between VIER and the Telekom “Intelligente Netze” (intelligent networks) team made the implementation of the new solution a complete success. The result: faster, more competent service and greater customer satisfaction. In addition, the tour operator has now completely switched its internal and external communication to MS Teams with the help of a cloud SBC from Telekom, thus finally saying goodbye to the previous IP-based telephony solution. The main location in Duisburg and 30 other locations and travel agencies were successfully migrated with around 650 users.

Benefit

Average waiting time reduced

Thanks to the overall cross-channel solution, all communication channels are managed via the same interface. All inquiries are pre-sorted using automated processes and forwarded to the relevant teams. The improvements are clearly noticeable and measurable: availability by telephone is 98%, with an average waiting time of around one minute. E-mails are processed on the same day or within 24 hours at the latest.

“Since the changeover, many work processes have become simpler and less stressful,” confirms Janine Renner, Team Leader Reservations for the Eastern Mediterranean. “This makes work more enjoyable and frees up time for new tasks – making our day-to-day work even more varied.” The new technology has led to a significant reduction in workload both in the reservations department and in other service departments, including the flight and accounting departments. The tour operator is now able to react dynamically to new requirements and events in the travel industry.

Customer testimonial

Janine Renner

Team Leader Reservations for the Eastern Mediterranean

"
Since the changeover, many work processes have become simpler and less stressful. This makes work more enjoyable and frees up time for new tasks – making our day-to-day work even more varied.
"

Plans

Process automation with AI

The advantages and optimization possibilities provided by AI-based solutions offer the tour operator interesting potential. “When dealing with our sales partners, we continue to place great value on direct contact,” emphasizes von der Heyden. But: “Digitalization and AI help us to optimize internal processes in the background.” So the development is not yet complete.

More about the product

VIER engage

Our AI-powered, cloud-based solution is ideal for demanding, large contact centers that want to offer an omnichannel customer experience.

More about VIER engage

About schauinsland-reisen

The tour operator schauinsland-reisen was founded on October 1, 1918 and has long been an established name in the tourism industry. A pioneering spirit, creativity and a healthy dose of courage have helped the company to grow steadily and successfully. The company stands for economic solidity, quality and fairness. The group currently has more than 70 of its own travel agencies and more than 600 employees work at the company headquarters in Duisburg alone. Thanks to strong business development, schauinsland-reisen now ranks third in the list of Germany's largest air tour operators.

More about schauinsland-reisen