What Is “Expensive?” 

By Odilia Guiant, Senior Vice President, ResortCom International  

If you are like most developers today, your goal is to deliver on the promise of your product, provide great vacation experiences, and create brand loyalty. Your success is based on and measured
by customer satisfaction. A major factor in delivering and staying competitive in the industry is the ability to handle your customers with ease throughout their entire membership lifecycle. Your infrastructure of systems and people is paramount in the daily execution of every touch-point.  

So, what system should you choose? With so many software options in the marketplace, the decision becomes a difficult one. What about servicing companies—do you use them or not?  

Many developers task their executives with finding a cost-effective solution that covers the majority of the business needs today. More than a solution, however, the focus should be geared toward finding
a “strategic partner” that can scale your business growth plans, who understands your priorities and the demands of the vacation industry.  

Mega-hospitality giants may rely on in-house IT departments to develop and maintain customer engagement systems, while small- and mid-size companies often reach out to third party providers to shore up portions of their platform. A viable vendor should be able to provide a suite of components and/or the entire system as a solution.  

Ultimately, great emphasis should be placed on finding a partnership and collaboration rather than engaging a third party vendor who simply provides the services requested. And sometimes, cheaper is not always better.  

To gain more knowledge on making the right expense choices and to learn about choosing the right partner and building and maintaining relationships with them be sure to read the full article in the November/December 2016 edition of Developments.