How Booker Helps Moms Have a Better Mother's Day

This was originally published on ICMI, here.

As a working mother, I know how hard it can be to set aside some “me time.” But what woman doesn’t love being treated to a nice spa treatment or getting pampered? With Mother’s Day coming up this weekend, I can think of a few things I’d put on my wish list. As people all over the country decide what to gift their mothers and loved ones this holiday, spas and salons are undoubtedly seeing a spike in calls, online requests for appointments and questions about the types of services they offer.

For Booker Software, a provider of cloud-based management systems for service-based health, wellness and beauty businesses, like spas and salons, Mother's Day is a very busy holiday. In fact, the National Retail Federation (NRF) estimates that U.S. Mother’s Day spending will reach a record-high $23.6 billion this year. And of all Americans purchasing Mother’s Day presents (i.e. greeting cards, flowers, jewelry), nearly 25 percent plan to buy a personal services gift like a spa day for their moms, spending around $1.9 billion. This is an impressive number.

With Booker, salon and spa owners can take advantage of Mother's Day spending by making it easy for consumers to purchase gift cards and memberships via multiple channels (phone, email, chat), as well as book online. In order for Booker to support the high demand of orders and service requests, they need a reliable customer service system.

Brian Raboin, VP of customer experience at Booker, assessed the company’s current customer service situation to determine what the company needed to keep up with the demands of the business. Top of mind for Brian was that Booker needed a solution that could integrate with Oracle Service Cloud. Once he was introduced to Five9, the only pure cloud contact center software provider for enterprise companies, it was a perfect match—a reliable customer service solution which seamlessly integrates with Oracle.

It turned out to be the right choice, because since implementing the Five9 and Oracle Service Cloud solution, Booker agents have been able to deliver stronger, more consistent customer experiences, are more efficient and have better visibility into individual customer needs (the customer journeys). There is now access to clearer, correlated data, which provides customer insights and enables Booker agents to respond to customers in a proactive manner. With a single consolidated and configurable platform, Booker is much more agile and able to respond to changes within its contact center in a timely fashion.

Raboin stressed, “I would urge any customer-facing organization that’s considering a customer service reboot or determining how to address heavier traffic during peak seasons, to do their homework on which technology will work most seamlessly with their current infrastructure.”

One particular integration which Booker has seen success with is the implementation of Five9’s visual Interactive Voice Response (IVR) and Oracle’s “Ask A Question” feature. It provides Booker’s customers with answers to their questions without needing to speak with a live agent. But if “Ask A Question” can’t provide an answer, the customer can click “Call Me” and they’ll be on the phone with a live agent instantly—jumping the queue. This allows Booker to continually improve its Smart Assistance capabilities and incentivizes customers to try the self-help channels first. Being customer-friendly was one of Booker’s highest priorities for its contact center technology, while also maintaining business efficiency.

This Mother’s Day should be about making our loved ones happy and appreciated. When technology works flawlessly to make these special purchases, we don’t get distracted with frustrations, but instead can focus on what’s meaningful. Booker demonstrates this through thoughtful application of technology and by keeping the end consumer in mind. In turn, Booker’s customers are able to successfully create strong and loyal customer bases. This is what differentiates good businesses from great businesses. At Five9 we’re proud to be the provider of the technology that enables Booker to deliver positive customer interactions—especially around holidays like Mother’s Day.

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