Unique Vacations, Inc. Improves Travel Agent and Customer Relationships With CRMPlus
Operator of the Sandals and Beaches all-inclusive resorts throughout the Caribbean, Unique Vacations Inc. (UVI) resorts are located in Jamaica, Antigua, St. Lucia, the Bahamas, and the Turks and Caicos Islands. Sandals Resorts is the world's only luxury-included® vacation for couples, while the Beaches Resorts brand caters to families, singles, and couples.
With offices in Miami and Toronto, and travel agents all over North America, UVI needed a flexible CRM solution that would allow them to manage travel agent and customer relationships across multiple sales channels.
When choosing a CRM solution, UVI had a number of criteria that candidates needed to
meet in order to be considered. Gary Sadler, Senior Vice President of Sales, recalls, “We
looked at Salesforce and a number of other companies, but Sage SalesLogix was most compatible with the things we were trying to achieve.”
Sadler adds, “Price certainly was a factor but also efficiency was a factor in choosing Sage
SalesLogix. We found that there was a great match between Sage SalesLogix and Sandals
Resorts. My experience with Sage SalesLogix has been absolutely phenomenal!”
Building Stronger Customer Relationships
Prior to implementing Sage SalesLogix, UVI had difficulty with department communications. Sadler explains, “Before implementing Sage SalesLogix, we had a challenge with information—with the inside sales department communicating with the outside sales department.”
CRMPlus integrated Sage SalesLogix with Unique Vacations Certified Sandals Specialist
program to provide Business Development Managers with complete visibility of their
target customers. This provided UVI with an integrated view of customer interactions
across multiple departments and locations—providing the information and insights UVI
needs for better planning, managing, and forecasting, and a better method for anticipating customer needs.
“Having one system in place provides the sales managers located across North and
Latin America with the information they need while in the field, and helps them communicate with the inside sales department. This has certainly helped us to be more effective in the things that we do on a regular basis,” explains Sadler.
“With Sage SalesLogix, we have been able to increase productivity and sales,” says Sadler. “We have also been able to manage the business of the travel agencies on a constant basis so now there is some tangible evidence as to what the business development managers are working on a particular field, their work with a particular agency, and their work on a particular project.”
Sadler adds, “We are able to see what those results are—based on information that we are able to put into Sage SalesLogix.”
Improving Reporting & Forecasting
With its robust reporting and analytics, opportunity management, process automation, and consolidated customer data, Sage SalesLogix enables UVI to make profitable decisions.
“A lot of times I think that companies make bad decisions because of incorrect information,” says Sadler. “In terms of forecasting, Sage SalesLogix has been able to provide us with good information to make good decisions.”
Sadler adds, “Sage SalesLogix provides us with history so that we are able to analyze the current situation and move forward with the management of all of our operations.”
UVI is currently running custom weekly reports and monthly calendars. Sadler explains, “With the custom management reporting CRMPlus designed and implemented for us, we are able to manage the important activities—what the business development managers are planning, how they plan their schedule, what things are being done out in the field that are right, or what challenges we have in the field.”
Providing Anywhere Access
“Remote access has certainly helped in demonstrating that no matter where you are,
business has to be done,” says Sadler. “The remote access that Sage SalesLogix has helped us to provide is excellent!
“Sage SalesLogix web access has benefited UVI because we are constantly on the go—somebody in California is making a decision that somebody in Miami needs to look at, but somebody in Toronto needs to be aware of the information,” explains Sadler. “Sage SalesLogix web access has provided this direction to make sure that everybody is on the same page going into the decision making process.”
Sadler adds, “None of our business development managers work out of our corporate office—they are all out in the field. With Sage SalesLogix they can be anywhere across North America at any given time and are able to connect.”
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