Transforming customer service in hospitality
Accor harnesses the power of AI
Accor, a global hospitality player, partnered with Deloitte to modernise its customer services for luxury and lifestyle brands. Through a global cloud telephony platform and advanced service based on artificial intelligence, Accor is now able to provide personalised customer service to its guests in over 110 countries.
Having diversified its portfolio into luxury and lifestyle, Accor faced specific challenges in modernising its customer services given that the company was not essentially digital native. Accor aimed to provide a personal touch, while streamlining and automating the customer service to meet its guests' needs in a timely and efficient manner.
The perfect blend of human and bot interaction
Accor and Deloitte collaborated to design and implement a global cloud telephony platform, and built an advanced service based on artificial intelligence (AI). The AI from the cloud enabled the building of a bot that gives automated answers to guest requests. While for the most complex requests Accor still relies on the human capacity to understand what a guest is requesting, the result is a mix of advanced bot and a human touch to personalise conversations. Accor also gained control of its data and its innovation capability, ensuring that its business teams can access real-time data to drive decisions to implement innovative features with a reduced time-to-market window.
The solution was deployed over seven contact centres, 2,000 telephony lines, and enhanced the productivity of 600 reservation agents all around the world in less than one year.
"We have a mix of advanced bot and a human touch to personalise the conversation with our guests."
Patrice Merrien, Accor Telecom
Director – Sales & Distribution
About Accor
Accor is a multinational hospitality company operating in more than 110 countries, with over 5,400 hotels, resorts, and residences. Its portfolio includes luxury and lifestyle brands such as Raffles, Sofitel, Fairmont, Pullman, and Swissôtel. With a commitment to providing exceptional service and personalised experiences to its guests, Accor continues to innovate and modernise its customer services to meet the evolving needs of the hospitality industry.
“When you are thinking about the best partner you can work with, it’s all about trust, commitment and energy.”
Carole Roth, Accor SVP Product Direct Channels, Loyalty & Customer Engagement – Digital Factory
The implementation of a global cloud telephony platform and the use of AI enabled Accor to streamline and automate its customer services, resulting in faster and more efficient service to guests.
The Deloitte difference
Working with Deloitte was key to the success of Accor's transformation project. Our technical expertise was critical in handling the technical complexity of the solution. We brought a deep understanding of the latest technologies and innovative approaches, and worked closely with the Accor team to build a solution that modernised Accor's customer services, while still including the personal touch, and improved the guest experience.
Our teams were able to adapt to the needs of the project and constantly meet rigorous requirements on the whole project which, for instance, enabled Accor to have a fully operational telephony platform for its Orient Express guests in less than three months, although it was not initially part of the project scope.
The implementation of a global cloud telephony platform and the use of AI enabled Accor to streamline and automate its customer services, resulting in faster and more efficient service to guests.
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