Highlights:
- Boosting sales: Between RingCentral’s easy-to-adjust call queues improving answer rates, and sales reps able now to show the company’s name on caller ID, Path Vacations’ sales have risen since rolling out RingCentral.
- Lowering expenses: Thanks to eliminating its on-prem phone hardware and ending costly carrier contracts, the company has seen its telecom cost fall thanks to RingCentral.
- Delighting guests: Because RingCentral allows the company’s support agents to take calls from anywhere, including home, Path Vacations’ Contact Center team is now able to answer calls more quickly—and provide a better caller experience—than ever.
Winning award after award for its upscale New England resorts
With an 80-year track record of providing relaxing getaways in settings surrounded by nature, Path Vacations has earned a reputation as one of the best “drive-to” destinations for a brief escape from metro New York, Boston, and other big cities.
Couples and families come from all over the world to spend time at the company’s three New Hampshire resorts—all of which offer lake views, nature-inspired activities, and top-tier amenities.
Path Vacations has also earned numerous awards for its upscale vacation properties from both the local New Hampshire press and the broader travel industry media. Just a few of the company’s accolades include a Best Romantic Getaway award, a Best Wedding Venue honor, and a spot on New Hampshire’s Union Leader newspaper’s list of “Top 10 Places to Stay.”
Growing too quickly for its legacy phone system
With a reputation for consistently delivering unforgettable vacations and outstanding service, Path Vacations has seen demand for bookings at its properties increase organically year after year. The company has even expanded its offering beyond its New England resorts to offer a club membership with access to world-class destinations all over the world.
Jessica Tivey, Director of Sales and Marketing for Path Vacations, explains that this ever-increasing interest in the company’s vacation offerings eventually taxed her staff’s legacy phone system beyond its limits.
“Our hardline phone system didn’t give us any mobile capabilities, and it didn’t support our ever-increasing call center needs—particularly as we crossed the 2,000-calls-per-day threshold.”
Switching to RingCentral proves to be quite an upgrade
An immediate benefit Path Vacations experienced after replacing its on-prem phone system with RingCentral’s anywhere, any-device cloud platform was the ability for its employees to stay connected and productive from anywhere.
“We finally had the ability to take our business numbers with us wherever we went,” Jessica says. “Setting employees up was so easy—everyone just downloaded the RingCentral app on their cell phones, and suddenly we could all receive and make work calls from the road or if we had to work from home.”
But that logistical improvement was only the first of many operational benefits Path Vacations realized after implementing the full suite of RingCentral cloud communications solutions.
As Jessica explains, “Our member support team has increased their answer rates, thanks to the call queues in RingCentral Contact Center. Our sales numbers are also up because guests can see Path Vacations on the caller ID even if our reps call from their cell phones. RingCentral is really helping us improve our operations across the board.”
Improving the caller experience with a RingCentral Contact Center integration
To more efficiently manage its 2,000 inbound and outbound calls a day, Jessica notes, Path Vacations got help from RingCentral’s ISV partner Velvetech. Their team implemented the RingCentral integration with Creatio, which Path Vacations uses as its CRM, and delivered an efficient CTI panel.
This integration, Jessica points out, has helped both the company’s member support agents and sales reps improve their daily workflows while also creating a better experience for callers.
“Because RingCentral integrates with our CRM, Creatio, our support agents can take guest calls right in their Creatio environment—and see a full profile and history of each caller even before they pick up. Our sales reps can also make calls to guests and prospects from Creatio and have detailed profile information onscreen. In both cases, this helps our team have more productive phone calls—whether they’re helping an existing member or signing up a new one.”
Jessica adds, “We’re in the business of delivering outstanding, hassle-free vacation experiences—and those experiences include providing excellent support anytime our guests contact us. Thanks to RingCentral, we’re able to do that now better than ever. And we didn’t have to spend more money to make that happen. RingCentral has helped us lower our costs.”
A surprising drop in telecom expenses
And speaking of lowering their costs, Jessica explains that she had assumed upgrading to an enterprise cloud communications solution—with video conferencing and a Contact Center platform—would increase the company’s overall expenses. But as she’s discovered since Path Vacations rolled out RingCentral, the result was just the opposite.
“Between eliminating our old phone hardware and maintenance costs, improving our staff’s efficiencies, and ending our costly carrier relationships, we’re saving money with RingCentral. Hard to believe we’re getting so much more and paying less—but I’ll take it.”
Originally published Nov 15, 2022, updated Jan 16, 2024
