Before deploying an on-demand system, ResortCom's Alex Marxer had to realign the company's business processes.
Alex Marxer
VP, Operations
Resortcom International
San Diego, Calif.
www.resortcom.com
MANAGER'S PROFILE: Oversees financial
operations for provider of financial and managerial
services to the vacation industry.
IN-BOX CRUNCH: Annually, between
October and January, ResortCom sends
out about 100,000 bills to customers.
That tends to generate a lot of customer
service e-mail messages: In the first week
of January alone, they spiked from 450
in 2006 to 750 this year. Sometimes the
issues addressed in those e-mails could
be resolved at first contact, but others
needed further attention. A lot of the time,
Marxer says, they'd get lost in the shuffle.
HIS PROJECT: As Marxer saw it, ResortCom
needed a better customer service system.
Specifically, "We really needed to get
a handle on our e-mail management," he
recalls. But before bringing in a software
tool, the company took two years to realign
some business processes, like consolidating
two call centers into one and integrating
it to back-office support. Then, in 2004,
Marxer put out a request for proposals to
CRM vendors.
FORTUNATE FIND: Then a funny thing
happened: A day before ResortCom stopped
accepting proposals, Marxer saw an ad in
a CRM trade group e-mail for RightNow
Technologies. The former CRM consultant
tried the online demo; he particularly liked
the workflow component, which let him see
turnaround times on customer requests.
SMOOTH SAILING: Within a week,
Marxer deployed RightNow's software.
The system helps ResortCom track
customer communications from origin to
resolution. Today, Marxer says, with
RightNow, those issues are being resolved
75% faster, without additional staff.
Projects: Customer Service 
