Dedicated Hybrid Support Agents
The Challenge
Supplement Their Internal Team by Covering the Overnight Shift
As a family-owned, boutique business, Beckon Homes operated with a small but tightly knit team of people who had been with the company since its inception and had worked tirelessly to build the brand up to an Airbnb superhost with 60+ properties. They now found themselves at the point where they needed to expand their hospitality management team in a manner that was affordable, dependable, and completely in line with their ethos of offering their guests a “home away from home” feel.
Being hyper-protective of their brand image, Beckon Homes had exacting standards of communication with guests. Run-of-the-mill customer service agents just would not cut it. They needed people who could tread the fine line between projecting a brand voice that was fun yet respectful, quick yet informative, concise but not curt, and kind but not overly formal. Put simply, Beckon needed a team they could trust so they could sleep peacefully, knowing that their guests were in good hands.
The Solution
2 Dedicated Agents | 16 Hours/day | 7 Days/week
We set Beckon up with two of our Dedicated Hybrid Support Agents, each covering 8 hours of the day, starting from where their team left off and continuing overnight into the following morning. We would sign into Guesty, their property management software of choice, where text messages and emails from guests would flow into a unified inbox. We were given a complete list of Beckon’s properties, a brand voice guide, and a document containing a list of processes to follow. We were ready to start after a training call where their Head of Hospitality introduced us to the rest of her team and walked us through the most asked questions.
Beckon had extensive automation and saved replies in their property management software of choice, Guesty. The day-to-day involved answering questions from potential guests, approving or canceling reservations, handling bag holds, managing early check-ins and late check-outs, helping guests gain access to the property, and dealing with any problems that may come up. There were also questions about the pet policy, the availability of certain amenities and supplies in the properties, the length of the drive, the number of parking spaces, and even the number of steps on a staircase.
We knew from the start that to live up to Beckon Homes’ expectations, we needed to do two things:
- Adopt their very particular communication style. One notable instruction we received from the co-founder herself was to replace the phrase “You’re welcome” with
“Of course!”
“Happy to help!”
And “Sure thing!” - Be as self-sufficient as possible. While their team was always happy to help, we recognized that we needed to be able to handle the majority of cases ourselves. To that end, we built a comprehensive knowledge base containing saved replies for various questions, guidelines for escalations, step-by-step guides and screen recordings of various processes, and a database of amenities, FAQs, and common concerns unique to each property. Any time anything new came to our knowledge, it went into the knowledge base for future reference.
Another example: Instead of “Thanks for booking!” we used “Thrilled to have you!” This unique learning experience gave us the opportunity to step back and re-evaluate our communication style overall, leading to the adoption of a friendlier, more contemporary tone across all our projects.
The Results
Satisfied Guests and a Team at Ease
With our team handling the after-hours, leveraging the knowledge base and using the distinct communication style that was so uniquely theirs, the Beckon Home staff could enjoy their evenings and weekends in peace, safe in the knowledge that their guests were being attended with the same passion, energy, and voice that they themselves brought to work every day. The guests, for their part, were always pleasantly surprised to receive instant yet thoughtfully written responses to their messages. It is safe to say that the Beckon Homes – HiredSupport partnership was destined to succeed because of both parties’ unwavering dedication to providing world-class experiences to their clients.
