Hotel Chain’s customers say it enhances Customer Service
Reston, VA (May 22, 2007) – eStara, the leading provider of proactive conversion solutions for enhancing online sales and support initiatives, today announced that Red Lion Hotels Corporation (NYSE: RLH), a full-service upscale hotel chain, has increased its customer satisfaction rate since implementing eStara Click to Call on its Website in August 2005.
With customers occasionally reaching a point in the online booking with questions which could prevent them from completing their reservation, Red Lion Hotels sought to implement a solution to assist the customer. With eStara Click to Call, Red Lion now offers customers the opportunity to directly connect with a customer service representative when they require personal assistance. An additional benefit is that Red Lion Hotels can monitor the point in the process when the customer used the Click to Call feature and improve the process.
“Red Lion’s Push to Talk service, powered by eStara’s Click to Call technology, is not only providing our agents a selling tool, but it’s increasing loyalty by showing customers Red Lion is ready to serve them whenever they want, however they want,” said Julie Silbar, Director of Call Center Operations for Red Lion Hotels. “The addition of eStara’s Click to Call technology to our redesigned Website has been one of the factors driving a 68 percent growth in our website revenues.”
To further ensure Red Lion is doing everything it can to fine tune its customer service, the company also uses eStara’s site survey technology to gather additional feedback about its Click to Call program. Results have found that 13 percent of those surveyed would have abandoned their transaction without the availability of Click to Call. Also, 62 percent of survey respondents said Click to Call improved or drastically improved their website experience and nearly 70 percent said Click to Call was easier to use than alternative contact methods such as email or toll-free telephone.
“Looking at the positive response we’ve seen from customer surveys, we’re convinced that this service keeps customers that would have otherwise left our site and booked elsewhere,” added Silbar.
“Red Lion’s experience is consistent with the results of eStara’s many other travel and hospitality customers,” said John Federman, CEO, eStara. “By carefully analyzing the points where customers are most likely to abandon the Website, companies can leverage Click to Call to offer customers the right form of contact at the right time.”
About Red Lion Hotels Corporation
Red Lion Hotels Corporation is a hospitality and leisure company primarily engaged in the ownership, operation and franchising of midscale and upscale, full service hotels under its Red Lion® brand. As of March 31, 2007 the Red Lion Hotel network was comprised of 57 hotels located in eight states and one Canadian province, with 10,001 rooms and 503,529 square feet of meeting space. The company also owns and operates an entertainment and event ticket distribution business. For more information, please visit the company’s website at www.redlion.com.
About eStara
eStara is a leading provider of proactive conversion solutions for enhancing online sales. The world’s most recognized brands — including Continental Airlines, DaimlerChrysler, Dell Financial Services, and Idearc SuperPages.com — leverage eStara’s OnDemand services to engage customers with the right form of contact at the right time to increase revenue, reduce website abandonment and improve customer satisfaction. eStara is a wholly owned subsidiary of ATG (Art Technology Group, Inc., NASDAQ: ARTG). For more information, visit www.eStara.com.
This press release contains forward-looking statements for purposes of the safe harbor provisions under The Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Further details on these risks are set forth in ATG’s filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. These filings are available free of charge on a website maintained by the SEC at http://www.sec.gov. Additional risk factors related to the subject matter of this press release include: the possibility that eStara’s product and service deployments will not be successful, on time or significantly enhance the user’s Internet experience; the need to adapt to rapid changes so products and services do not become obsolete; the possibility of errors in eStara’s software products and services; the possibility that eStara’s offerings will not enhance its customers’ online sales or otherwise provide the expected benefits to its customers; and the possibility that eStara’s product strategy may change in the future. eStara and ATG undertake no obligation to update any of the forward-looking statements after the date of this press release.
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