Electronic Proposals - Easy for Sales Managers, Frustrating for Customers; Pretty pictures are no substitute for substance / November 2009

Hotel Online
News for the Hospitality Executive

Electronic Proposals - Easy for Sales Managers,
Frustrating for Customers

Pretty pictures are no substitute for substance

FT LAUDERDALE – November 11, 2009: Electronic proposals are becoming more and more widely used. They are easy and convenient for sales managers and provide a beautiful presentation to potential customers. So what could be wrong with that?

Don Bundock, President of Quality Track International says “Through GroupMetrix, our competitive-set group-rate shopping service, we review thousands of group proposals and have been able to make some interesting observations.”

97% of electronic proposal are missing at least one key piece of the requested information
62% of electronic proposals are missing three or more key pieces of rate information

This does not compare favorably to other proposal types. Only 40% of offline proposals are missing information, still unacceptably high, but far better than electronic proposals. Additionally,

Hotels using electronic proposals tend to take longer to prepare the proposal
Sales managers using electronic proposals are less responsive to follow up questions

This does not appear to result from an inherent weakness or flaw in the electronic proposal process. Rather, it seems to stem from a misplaced reliance on the quality of the presentation where sales managers believe that the sheer beauty and slickness of the presentation will compensate for their failure to answer the customer’s specific questions.

“Regardless of how a property sends out its proposals, if the information the customer has requested is missing, the customer will not be satisfied.” continued Bundock, “Any property considering electronic proposals must adequately train managers to ensure that potential customers are getting all the information they have requested. Pretty pictures are no substitute.”

About GroupMetrix: GroupMetrix is a competitive-set group-rate shopping service.

The GroupMetrix Group-Rate Shopping service creates elaborate corporate identities to facilitate realistic shop calls to obtain competitors’ group and meeting rates.

GroupMetrix CompSet Group-Rate Reports provide unparalleled insight into competitors’ rates and pricing strategy and include all the rate components that factor into a group or meeting quotation: room rates, inclusions, in-room internet, catering (breakfast, breaks, luncheon and dinners), meeting room rates, AV rates, meeting room internet rates, minimum F&B guarantees, comp rooms, upgrades and master bill discounts.

Armed with highly believable shopping identities, GroupMetrix shoppers are able to effectively offer price-resistance and discover the true rates that competitors are offering.
The GroupMetrix service includes 2 rate shops per month on each of 4 competitors, for a total of 8 rate shops. Each rate shop is price challenged, creating an additional set of 8 rates.

The total cost is $129 per month, which is only $8 for each set of rates.

Additional competitors can be added if desired. Volume pricing for management companies and market clusters is also available.

Click here to view a sample GroupMetrix rate report - Sample Report

Click here to view a short online presentation - Online Presentation

GroupMetrix is the world’s only systematic provider of competitive set group rate information.

For more information contact: Mr. Donald Bundock, CEO, Quality Track International, Inc., at (416) 693-5426 or by email at [email protected]

About Quality Track International, Inc.: Quality Track International, established in 1998, is a leading worldwide provider of a full range of mystery shopping services and PCI compliant call center monitoring to the hospitality industry.

Contact:

Quality Track International

Head Office:
36 Toronto Street, Suite 850
Toronto, Ontario, Canada
M5C 2C5
Telephone: (416) 693-5426
Email: [email protected]

US Office
1601 N. Palm Avenue, Suite 211
Pembroke Pines, Florida 33026
Telephone: (954) 432-2998

http://www.QualityTrack.com

Also See:	What is really going on with group rates? How to obtain critical competitive intelligence / November 2009
	28% of Group Sales Inquiries are Lost, Ignored or Abandoned / May 2009
	Quality Track’s 2,000,000th Mystery Call Received by Mandarin Oriental, New York / April 2009
	Quality Track to Celebrate 2 Million Mystery Shop Calls / April 2009
	Green Up Your Training. Improving Performance and Saving the World / December 2008
	The Upside of a Downturn; The need to cut costs creates push to consider alternatives / November 2008
	Downturn Dilemma; How to save money on training without sacrificing performance / November 2008