Case Study:

Caesars Palace

Caesars Palace has been a premier destination resort on the Las Vegas strip for more than 30 years. With 2,450 hotel rooms, 5,000 employees and a world-renowned casino that attracts 100,000 visitors per day, the Caesars Palace name has become synonymous with superior service and the lavish treatment of guests.

Guest Satisfaction Improvement with State-of-the-Art
Call Center Technology

The Challenge

Often the first point of contact at any resort, the call center for reservation and guest services needed to maintain a high degree of service and guest pampering expected from the Caesar experience. The hotel and casino sought a communications solution to organize its 23-agent call center to improve call processing and response time. To do this, Caesars installed Nortel Networks' Symposium call center server, providing skills-based routing and real-time queue reporting to enhance the efforts of agents and supervisors, while improving overall customer satisfaction and service levels.

To further aid in the processing of calls, agents require real-time information on all events and guests to be instantly retrievable and seamlessly integrated with the existing Symposium automated call distributor (ACD) system. Furthermore, the product needed to assimilate with the Nortel call center platform while having the flexibility to work with multiple communications platforms between the other properties owned and operated by the Caesars Palace parent company, Caesar Entertainment.

Each Caesars Entertainment property is operated as an individual entity, with its own character and charm. The varied "personality" of each location required agents working from a centralized call center be well versed on each destination, with instant access to any and all information on the family of properties and guests.

The Solution

Caesars looked to Amcom Software¹, a provider of computer and local area network-based telecommunications systems to improve call center efficiencies and maintain brand integrity for ongoing customer loyalty.

Caesars installed Xtend XpressDesk™, a Windows-based application that allows call takers visual access to advanced hospitality-specific telephony capabilities. The XpressDesk system augmented the functionality provided by Symposium by delivering detailed information on callers from guest rooms via a gateway interface to the hotel's property management system. When a call is received, the extension is recognized and corresponded with the appropriate guest profile in the database. A pop-up screen of the caller's guest profile is immediately displayed on the computer of the call center agent. The XpressDesk application enables agents to be well prepared for any incoming call regardless of its origin.

Amcom Software implemented several other modules to enhance call center operations including a wakeup application, a Xtend Paging Gateway and Xtend Voice With a Smile®, which allows calls to be greeted with a customizable, time-of-day sensitive message in the voice of the appropriate operator handling the call.

Voice assisted transfer was also instituted for guest and staff calls. When a caller is transferred by an agent, a recorded message automatically plays, letting the caller know that "Next time you can dial direct by calling area code (702) 555-1234". This serves to significantly reduce main number calls, allowing agents to concentrate on the more important calls and offer the best possible service.

The Result

Overall, the integration of XpressDesk with Symposium has been well received by management and guests alike. Caesars has created a call center environment that mimics the hotel's reputation for unparalleled guest service. Since implementation, service levels have improved from 75-percent to 90-percent, with the abandoned call rate down from six percent to only three percent. Callers are taken care of by a staff of agents that are prepared and cross-trained to meet any and all needs that may arise. On average, Caesars has realized a five percent increase in agent productivity levels and improved call-processing time by 30-percent.