Best Western Scores Top Customer Marks With Medallia CEM Survey Program

PALO ALTO, Calif., May 19, 2011 — Medallia® (medallia.com), the global leader in software-as-a service Customer Experience Management (CEM) solutions, today announced that Best Western International has increased customer satisfaction across nearly 125 properties in the U.S. and Canada through a new North American customer care initiative enhanced by the Medallia Customer Experience Management platform. The initiative, I Care 2, is a guest satisfaction training program that has helped Best Western determine what guests desire most when selecting a hotel. The program trains hotel staff to exceed guests’ expectations by delivering an exceptional room product and superior customer service.

Best Western International is the World’s Largest Hotel Chain, with more than 4,000 independently owned and operated hotels in 90 countries, and a leader in guest satisfaction for midscale hotels. Best Western has received recognition for its customer care efforts, including being named a Gold Winner in Fast Company’s Co.Design 2010 International Design Excellence Awards for collaborative service in the I Care program.

Best Western launched I Care 2 in 2009 as an expansion of its customer care training program, I Care, which began in late 2007 as a brand-wide initiative to bring innovative customer service training to each of the chain’s North American properties. The original I Care program focused on providing heroic hospitality to guests, empowering hotel staff to resolve guest problems on a timely basis. It offered individual certification for employees selected as I Care Champions. I Care 2 builds on that foundation by taking problem resolution and expanding into problem prevention, by focusing on hotel experiences that are most important to the guest, and by offering hotel-level certification.

With the Medallia CEM platform, Best Western gets real-time customer analytics through a flexible and easy-to-use online reporting platform that lets frontline desk employees respond quickly to guests and make smarter customer care decisions. While using Medallia CEM tools, Best Western achieved a six percent increase in its problem resolution rate throughout I Care 2 properties and up to a five percent increase in overall customer satisfaction scores.

“Best Western is committed to helping all of its North American properties become I Care 2 certified because of the success of the program and improved customer satisfaction scores across the board,” said Michael Morton, Managing Director of Member Services at Best Western International. “Medallia’s platform really helped Best Western achieve its goals with respect to exceeding our guests’ expectations.”

To replicate its success throughout Best Western’s international regions, the company has begun to share customer service best practices among its properties worldwide.

“With Medallia, companies can achieve superior customer satisfaction by understanding—and then exceeding—expectations at every step in the customer engagement,” said Amy Pressman, president and co-founder of Medallia. “Best Western’s commitment to guest satisfaction is remarkable, as demonstrated by its introduction of the I Care 2 program, even when its I Care program was setting the standard for success in the hotel industry. I Care 2 is an exemplary program that not only captures feedback to resolve and prevent problems, but also helps hotels drive continuous improvement by measuring what works.”