Omni Enhances Meetings & Event Biz with LivePerson Enterprise Live Chat

Omni Hotels & Resorts, one of the leading luxury hotel brands in North America has implemented the LivePerson Enterprise live chat solution within the meetings and events section of the Omni website. The goal of the new implementation is to provide an additional communications channel for meeting and event planners to engage with Omni sales managers, in real-time via the Internet, in order to facilitate communications, increase RFP conversions and improve the overall level of support offered. Since deploying the solution in April 2010, Omni has been able to realize a 50 percent boost in chat-driven request-for-proposals (RFPs) with more than half converting to prospective business for the luxury hotel brand.

"We have been using LivePerson throughout other sections of our website for some time, targeting business and leisure guests, achieving amazing results -- 18 percent conversion rates, 87 percent customer satisfaction scores and an average order value increase of 15 percent," says Kerry Kennedy, vice president of e-commerce for Omni Hotels & Resorts. "Based on these results, we knew chat would prove to be successful for our meetings and events business. Since deploying the solution, we've been able to increase RFPs with the majority of them becoming potential business for the brand."

Forty-five to fifty percent of Omni Hotel & Resorts business is derived from their meetings segment. During the site exploration process for a meeting or event planner, numerous questions often arise. LivePerson enables Omni to readily engage with prospective clients in real-time, throughout the question and answer process. This is translating into real value for Omni and helping the company deliver improved levels of customer satisfaction.

LivePerson Enterprise enables online businesses to assess who will need personalized assistance in order to drive conversions, first contact resolution and ensure an optimal customer experience. What's more, incoming phone call and email volume is deflected, which means fewer cases opened, fewer resources needed to play email tag, and the cost per interaction is significantly reduced. Customers typically see the following results after implementing LivePerson Enterprise:

• 20% increase in online sales
• 25% reduction in cost of handling target call or email queues
• The highest (85% and above) customer satisfaction score measured