KPI Focus: AHT, FCR, CSAT, SLA
The Situation
A travel and hospitality group wanted more consistent support across reservations, service recovery, and post-stay issues.
What Wasn’t Working
- Handling quality differed too much by channel.
- Booking modifications took longer than expected.
- Guests re-escalated cases because first-touch resolution was incomplete.
What We Changed
We aligned operations around one shared service model:
- Unified workflows for reservation and recovery cases.
- Set structured escalation criteria and communication checkpoints.
- Applied cross-channel QA standards.
- Coached teams on first-touch completeness and expectation setting.
What Happened
Service became faster and more consistent.
- Booking-modification resolution time improved by 23%.
- Escalation recurrence dropped by 19%.
- Post-interaction satisfaction increased by 12 points.
The client retained the model as a standard for future seasonal planning.
A Real Moment From the Engagement
In early call reviews, teams found that many escalations could have been avoided with better first-touch expectation setting. Coaching shifted quickly to that skill.
Before vs After (Operationally)
- Before: Reservation cases reopened because next steps were unclear.
- After: Better first-touch guidance reduced repeat escalations.
What Changed for the Team
Team morale improved as staff dealt with fewer avoidable recontacts and more complete first interactions.
Constraints We Worked Within
- Limited time to redesign workflows without disrupting live service.
- Existing tools and reporting structures that could not be replaced immediately.
- Need to improve performance while maintaining day-to-day SLA commitments.
Tradeoffs We Made
- Prioritized highest-impact workflows first instead of trying to fix every queue at once.
- Chose repeatable process controls over one-off optimizations.
- Deferred lower-priority enhancements until baseline stability was proven.
If We Were Starting Again Today
We would still start with ownership clarity and a fast governance cadence, but we would add earlier frontline shadowing in the first two weeks to accelerate practical workflow adjustments.