Hotel Online  Special Report

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Town and Country Resort & Convention Center Leverages
M-Tech Espresso!  Rapid Response System to
Enhance Guest Satisfaction
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Nextel phones work with M-Tech Espresso! and let 30+ maintenance staff stay on top of guests� needs from behind the scenes at the 40-acre property

MIAMI / SAN DIEGO � SEPT. 23, 2003 � Thousands of roses, palms swaying in the warm breeze and exquisitely luxurious appointments are the first things you see when you enter the Town and Country Resort & Convention Center in San Diego. Situated on 40 fantastic acres in southern California, with the distinction of being one of the 10 largest convention hotels in the country, the 1,000-room Town and Country property gives no hint of M-Tech�s high technology working behind the scenes to make it as mellow and relaxing as a great cup of java.
 

�With the Espresso! system and the Nextel phones, we can anticipate the needs of our guests before problems arise,� said Robert Dabaghian, Director of IT and a 32-year veteran employee at the property. �When we see a problem, it�s called in and acted on immediately.�

As a technology innovator, Dabaghian has been at the forefront of computerizing the company ever since the late 1970s, taking steps to apply the best technology � like M-Tech�s Espresso! � to make the operation of the property more 


Town and Country Resort
& Convention Center
500 Hotel Circle North
San Diego, California
efficient and profitable.
,
Rapid ROI

�There is a lot of technology out there, but we have tried to concentrate on the technology that makes the greatest contribution to our bottom line,� said Dabaghian. �Today, everything needs to be interfaced together and all kinds of applications have to talk to each other.�

Dabaghian said the M-Tech Espresso! Rapid Response System excels at helping them bring together the huge amount of information they need to serve their guest�s needs, eliminate delays and redundancy in responding to guest requests, and tremendously speed up the maintenance process. 

M-Tech�s Espresso! uses touch-tone phones to automate the service order reporting process. For example, when a maid goes into a room and finds that a light bulb is burned out, she uses the phone in the room to generate a service order by just calling the Espresso! Virtual Dispatcher and following a few simple instructions � in the language of her choice. 

That entry is immediately processed by the Espresso! system into a service order and a message is instantly sent to the phone of one of 30 or so maintenance staff who then respond as quickly as possible. Maintenance staff can then update the status of the service order right from their Nextel phones with the click of a button. Espresso! keeps track of all the details and keeps the paperwork in order so that hotel staff can concentrate on serving their guests better.

Currently all 225 hotel employees have Nextel phones, but currently only the maintenance people are completely tied in to the Espresso! system. According to Dabaghian the plans are to �get everyone on the system� in the coming months.
�Espresso! has given us the means to standardize how we do all this reporting and it works like a charm,� Dabaghian said. �We have successfully standardized on the Nextel radio phone, with the objective of eliminating antiquated pagers, cell phones and old-style walkie-talkie radios, and now we are on the verge of putting it all together with Espresso!�

The Nextel interface to Espresso! was key to achieving the jump in efficiency that Dabaghian wanted for Town and Country.

�Now that M-Tech fully supports this radio phone, we�ve gone to the next level of being able to provide near real-time maintenance response to improve guest satisfaction � because making our guests happy is what this property is really all about,� Dabaghian said.

Forward thinking & acting

The M-Tech Espresso! Rapid Response system also lets Town and Country get a better handle on its preventative maintenance function. The system tracks service and maintenance information and provides trend information. By seeing what has happened, management has the information it needs to anticipate the future and plan for it.

�Espresso! gives us a better way to learn from what happened before,� Dabaghian said. �Preventative maintenance is easier to plan when you have a comprehensive picture of what has happened and what keeps happening, so you can take proactive steps to fix it.�

Espresso! takes the drudgery out of saving and organizing maintenance data, providing the reporting tools management needs to take proactive corrective action and forecast maintenance needs. It also helps management assess suppliers� products, letting them see which are most reliable and cost-effective, and then plan appropriately to reduce future problems and related labor and parts costs � not to mention guest complaints.

�This system never forgets the details,� Dabaghian said. �M-Tech�s Espresso! helps our people do their jobs better and faster � saving all of us headaches and time � while boosting our hotel and convention guest satisfaction considerably.�
Leo Acosta, M-Tech�s Director of Sales & Marketing, concurred.

�We�re pleased that Town and Country is realizing significant increased efficiency through Espresso! and is leveraging the system to increase its excellent customer service reputation,� Acosta said. �Our solutions are designed and proven to help hotels build their reputations, business bases and bottom lines one guest, one request at a time.�

Superlative quality management

�It�s been almost a year that we have had Espresso! in-house and M-Tech has provided us with superlative support, helping us make this powerful software system an integral part of our day-to-day business operations,� Dabaghian said.
�M-Tech prides itself on continually extending and improving the system�s capabilities to provide even more of what the industry needs and what our customers need,� Acosta said. �We work closely with our customers to make sure our technology delivers business solutions that help them stay focused on their guests� satisfaction.�

Espresso! is specifically designed to improve communications between departments, streamline data collection and entry, speed up the dispatching process and increase staff productivity. Espresso! uses proven, easy to use, and cost-effective technologies as the human interface, such as telephones, alphanumeric pagers and e-mail.  From Guest Hotline/CRM to Preventive Maintenance functions, Espresso! helps hotels better manage all of their critical processes in quality management.

Espresso! automates hotel workflow processes, making it easier to keep track of what needs to be done. By automating and speeding the flow of information �from the reporters to the repairers or responders,� the common headaches typically associated with hotel dispatching � lost service requests, miscommunication with guests, and inconsistent log books � are completely eliminated. 

�By keeping track of all the little details, our system solves one of the biggest challenges hotels face � streamlining communication between departments which discover and report issues and departments which are responsible for responding to and fulfilling service requests,� Acosta said. �Espresso! makes all this information easily available so it can be easily monitored.�

�ROI for us is on-going,� Dabaghian said. �Tracking what is going on is invaluable, and knowing what is going on � from the entry of an issue through where it is in the resolution process to what was done � has let us to realize significant gains in our efficiency, productivity and profitability, and in guest satisfaction.�

Worldwide more than 550 properties use Espresso! to improve customer satisfaction, save staff time and improve the bottom line. A typical 1,000-room property realizes an ROI of $100,000+ annually in time and labor savings, asset protection, and even more through enhanced guest loyalty and referrals.

About Town and Country Resort
A San Diego landmark, the Town and Country Resort & Convention Center is spread over 40 acres of immaculate grounds, landscaped by hundreds of grand arching palms. Guests of the Town and Country Resort, feel more like family than visitors. In a world of distinguished resorts, what makes the Town and Country Resort stand apart is its high standard of attentive, personal service and luxurious amenities. For more information about the Town and Country, please call (619) 291-7131 and visit online at http://www.towncountry.com.

About M-Tech
Since 1993, Management Technologies (M-Tech) has developed and installed solutions to help hotels work smarter � not harder � with its Espresso! Quality Management family of products. Espresso! is designed specifically to help hotels improve communications, increase productivity, and maximize guest satisfaction. Unique telephone, email and alphanumeric paging interfaces improve overall workflow and communication between departments and streamline data collection and dispatching processes. Production, pre-installation, sales, marketing, and support are provided from the company�s headquarters facility in Miami. For more information on the company, please call Leo Acosta at (305) 256-0429 or by e-mail at [email protected] and visit the company online at www.m-tech.com.

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Contact:

Leo Acosta
Director of Sales and Marketing
Management Technologies 
Tel: (305) 256-0429
[email protected]
 

Robert Dabaghian
Director of IT
Town and Country 
Tel: (619) 291-7131
[email protected]

Also See: Mohegan Sun Leverages Espresso! Rapid Response to Gain Service Upper-hand / April 2003
Gaylord Palms leverages M-Tech�s Espresso! Quality Management Solution to Extend Award-winning Guest Service / July 2003
M-Tech Partners With PRPRO / April 2003


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