MONCTON, NB, May 13, 2002 -  Fairmont Hotels & Resorts’ Global Reservation Centre (GRC) today announced that it has launched an advanced phone-routing system, leveraging Computer Telephony Integration, which speeds up the reservation process and converts more phone inquiries to reservations.  The new system routes a call from a potential guest directly to a GRC sales agent who is personally familiar with the particular hotel where the guest wishes to make a reservation.

"When someone responds, for example, to an advertisement for The Fairmont Banff Springs, the new technology at the GRC looks for an agent who has visited that resort in the Canadian Rockies," explains Allison Lang, General Manager.  Now when the GRC receives a phone call, the system refers to the profiles of all the Fairmont reservation agents and chooses the agent who knows that particular property. Each profile includes information about an agent’s awareness of particular Fairmont hotels or resorts, as well as language skills.  
        
The reservation agent has on his or her computer desktop a “soft phone” with all the features of a regular phone. The soft phone also captures information about a call, including guest feedback on hotel products and services. The agent must state whether the call was converted to a reservation before proceeding to the next call, providing a record of the outcome of every call.

Fairmont’s GRC then creates reports that summarize call volume and identify reservation conversions by property and agent. Because the reports also reveal whether the call was to a number that appeared in an ad, Fairmont can learn more about the effectiveness of promotions that include dedicated toll-free numbers. The company's web-based reporting system distributes these reports to GRC personnel, the corporate office and all properties.  

The new reservation technology, designed to specifically meet Fairmont's customer service needs, was delivered by the Exigen Group as part of its managed service suite of customer service solutions.  In the future Fairmont can also use this customer-focused call-routing technology in many other ways: for example, to co-browse, permit click-to-talk and customize email management. A GRC agent will be able to co-browse, reading the Fairmont website along with the caller.  The best-informed agent could also call back a potential guest who had scheduled a call through a click-to-talk link on the Fairmont site. The new technology could also route incoming emails in the same way it now routes phone calls to the agent who knows the most about a specific property. 

Fairmont Hotels & Resorts is the largest operator of luxury hotels and resorts in North America, with a unique collection of world-class resorts and city center hotels that enjoy unrivalled prominence in the communities where they are located.  

Exigen Group, a global business process technology company (www.exigengroup.com) focuses on lowering the total cost of ownership for customers.  Through developing Business Process Utilities™ that enable companies in an industry segment to share a core infrastructure and standardized services, Exigen helps companies realize rapid ROI and achieve measurable value.