James Villas

Using SentiSum's automated topic recognition and triage, James Villas decreased first reply time to urgent tickets by 46% in a few weeks.

The agent team now also has more time to spend with customers and the holiday villa experience has improved as a result of better customer service.

Sketch of a villa
James Villas Logo

Sector:

Travel; eCommerce

Overview:

James Villa Holidays is one of the biggest brands in villa holidays. The James Villas company has over 3000 properties in 60 destinations, which are let out to holidaymakers looking for quality stays.

Help Desk:

Zendesk

Team Size:

+100 employees

-46%

First Reply Time

-51%

Resolution Time

+11%

Customer Satisfaction

Graph reduce first response time

The Challenge

Over the COVID-19 pandemic, James Villas experienced a large influx of more complex support request from customers stuck in challenging and uncertain situations. Due to high volumes and complexity, the team struggled to prioritise urgent tickets—where a non-timely response would lead to a significant, negative impact on the customer's experience.

Johannes, the Head of CRM, identified the need and implemented SentiSum's AI technology to automatically recognise and triage urgent cases within Zendesk.

The Outcome

With SentiSum doing the heavy lifting, the James Villas support team can focus on their job: making customers happy. James Villas customer's now get fast customer service, especially when it's urgent and they need help the most—leading to a higher satisfaction rate and improved customer loyalty.

The holiday industry in particular is dependent on customer satisfaction for success—with holidays being a particularly emotional and important time of the year. With SentiSum implemented, James Villas has ensured a smooth operational process that translates into a better experience for holidaymakers during this important time.

"We're very impressed by the technology itself, but even more so by the relentless effort the team puts in to support our specific use case."

Johannes Ganter, Head of CRM and Digital Transformation at James Villas

SentiSum's Impact

Accurate recognition and triage.

SentiSum's AI reads, tags and triages all James Villas support tickets in real-time. In line with the James Villas prioritisation strategy, tickets considered urgent are sent to a dedicated inbox instantly.

"Sentisum helps us to organise our tickets and triage them to the right team member with the necessary skills to solve a ticket with the best possible outcome."—Johannes Ganter, Head of CRM

Feature Image 1 - automated triage

Smooth operational process.

Delivering great customer service while being operationally efficient is critical to James Villas growth plan. SentiSum improved both CX and efficiency—handing back time and a sense of relief to the team, while improving outcomes for customers through reduced response time to urgent tickets.

"Sentisum will play a vast role in our ambitions to become more efficient in our customer care processes, without reducing our service levels."—Johannes Ganter, Head of CRM

Feature Image 1-prioritisation and efficiency image

Improved customer satisfaction & loyalty.

SentiSum ensured a fast response time to tickets created at critical parts of the holiday customer journey, avoiding logistical issues and negative experiences for customers.

"More than any other industry we're dependent on the satisfaction of our customers. Holiday makers are very unforgiving if the best time of their year turns into a logistical nightmare."—Johannes Ganter, Head of CRM

Feature Image 1-improved CSAT and loyalty

Q&A

Johannes Ganter

Johannes Ganter, Head of CRM and Digital Transformation at James Villas

What challenges were you having before SentiSum?

Due to Covid-19 the travel industry had an influx in support tickets that made the management of our support operations extremely challenging. The team struggled with customers reaching out due to uncertainty, frustration, as well as necessary cancellations and travel date changes.

The challenge was to prioritize tickets in a way, so that urgent cases were handled as quick as possible so that our customers could travel at ease.

Unfortunately that was not always possible due to the sheer ticket volume, as well as complexity of the cases.

In what ways are you using SentiSum Tags in Zendesk?

Sentisum helps us to organise our tickets and triage them to the right team member with the necessary skills to solve a ticket with the best possible outcome.

The tech recognises urgent tickets and thanks to the seamless Zendesk integration we can then apply specific business rules to trigger the right processes.

How was your experience of the free trial and what did you get out of it?

The trial was great to analyse our data, teach the algorithm and get to know the tool itself. Due to the content structure of our tickets, it was quite challenging to train the system to focus on specific aspects, but over time things became more and more accurate.

The very hands-on approach of the Sentisum team was extremely impressive from day 1. Even though the trial was a bit too short (4 weeks go extremely quick), we gained enough trust in the software to continue our journey.

Would you describe a few of the reasons you decided to buy our product? Were there any high-level initiatives or goals that prompted the decision to buy?

We're very impressed by the technology itself, but even more so by the relentless effort the team puts in to support our specific use case. Whenever I talk to the team and mention a new initiative, or feature they are straight on it and help me draw the right conclusions. The future roadmap of Sentisum looks incredibly exciting too. For instance, we can't wait to integrate translation features [these features are now live] and serve our sharply increasing international customer base.

What’s the impact been on the team? And yourself?

The team can focus on their job, which is to make sure our customers are happy. Sentisum takes care of the heavy lifting by making sure we assign the right cases to our customer success specialists.

How does the SentiSum project fit into your overall vision as a company? Is CX and customer-centricity part of your ethos?

More than any other industry we're dependent on the satisfaction of our customers. Holiday makers are very unforgiving if the best time of their year turns into a logistical nightmare. Even though we can't control the outcome of every single holiday experience, we've got to give our absolute best to keep interruptions at a minimum and help our customers whenever it is needed.

As a business we have a very strict growth plan and are very ambitious with our future targets. We are convinced that we can only assure a smooth operational process, by making use of smart tech. Sentisum will play a vast role in our ambitions to become more efficient in our customer care processes, without reducing our service levels.

Any final bits of advice to others considering SentiSum?

When discussing your pain points don't leave anything out of the conversation. There's a good chance the team has some smart product features at hand, or is willing to investigate a solution.

Block enough time in your calendar during the implementation process. It will be totally worth it further down the line.

Ready to learn more?

"The trial was great to analyse our data, teach the algorithm and get to know the tool itself."—Johannes Ganter, James Villas