Marriott Vacation Club International
Company: Marriott Vacation Club International, Orlando, Florida
Company Description: Marriott Vacation Club International (MVCI), a subsidiary of Marriott International, employs more than 10,000 Associates as the recognized global leader in development, operations and sales of Vacation Ownership resorts. Marriott Vacation Club resorts set the stage for our more than 250,000 Owners to enjoy a lifetime of awesome vacation experiences.
Nomination Category: Organization Awards Categories
Nomination Sub Category: Best Customer Service Organization
Nomination Title: Marriott Vacation Club International Delivering a Lifetime of Awesome Vacation Experiences
1. Tell the story about what this nominated organization/department achieved in the past year (up to 500 words). Focus on specific accomplishments, and relate these accomplishments to past performance or industry norms. Be sure to mention obstacles overcome, innovations or discoveries made, and outcomes:
Marriott Vacation Club International (MVCI) -- The Ritz-Carlton Club, Marriott Vacation Club, Marriott Grand Residences, and Horizons by Marriott brands -- is the recognized world leader in Vacation Ownership (timeshare, fractional and private residences.)The formula for our unprecedented success continues to be our relentless focus on CUSTOMER SERVICE.In our business, customer service is not limited to a single event or transaction but rather a lifetime of interactions as we now serve over 340,000 owner families.Founder J. Willard Marriott built our entire company upon the philosophy “Take care of your Associates, they will take care of your customers, and the business will take care of itself”.
Accolades for being the best continue to be bestowed upon our Associates such as American Business Awards’ “America’s Best Sales Organization” and Selling Power’s “Best Service Company to Sell”.Equally important, 9 out of 10 customers/owners rate us as excellent and over 6,000 letters arrive each year on our Chief Customer Officer’s (CCO) desk such as this one:
“…It was one of the most astounding examples of exceptional service that I have witnessed…Needless to say, we will remain loyal guests and happily refer our friends to Marriott Vacation Club. By the way, you might be interested to know that prior to returning to Seattle, we purchased two more weeks, but that is another story.”Roy H., PhD
Over half of our business is driven by owner referrals or existing owners that choose to purchase more vacation real estate with MVCI’s brands. This is the primary driver of our financial success – our 11th consecutive year of averaging over 20% sales growth!
Our business processes are built upon our value discipline of Customer Intimacy led by our CCO.Our Customer Relationship Management team leverages this integrated approach to ensure every potential Customer TouchPoint is exceptional.While this seamless lifelong ownership experience is enabled through our data infrastructure & internal customer communications, it becomes a reality by our 10,000 associates committed to accomplishing our mission to “Deliver awesome experiences that make vacation dreams come true” for each and every one of our owner families.
Ensuring our customer service levels are maintained at world-class levels, we continuously enhance and implement improvements such as:
Voice of the Customer: proactive process leveraging custom technology to deliver the key drivers of customer satisfaction across all levels of our entire organization for individual customers.This includes a sophisticated text analysis capability that enables us to capture the “emotions” our customers feel.
Moments of Awe: inspirational book created for every associate containing the best customer experiences with guidance to replicate these best practices.
Way to Go! From the CCO: formal e-enabled recognition program that allows owners and associates to recognize customer service resulting in praise and financial rewards for associates.
Concierge Assistant & Vacation Experience Planning: new internet solutions enabling owners to plan their vacation experiences prior to arrival.
Owner Services Expansion: we now have over 600 world-wide associates engaging our customers at ‘world-class’ levels (The Gallup Organization, 2006.)
2. List hyperlinks to any online news stories, press releases, or other documents that support the claims made in the section above. IMPORTANT: Begin each link with http://, and enclose each link in square brackets; for example, [http://www.youraddress.com]:
MVCI wins Sales Excellence Awards for "Best Timeshare Organization" and "Best Hiring and Recruiting Program"
http://www.sellingpower.com/awards/SalesExcellenceAwardsWinners.asp
Balanced Scorecard Collaborative Honors Marriott Vacation Club International with Prestigious Hall of Fame Award
http://www.bscol.com/pdf/PR_BSCHoF-NorthAmericanPressRelease-11-8-06.pdf
Marriott Vacation Club International Implements A Fiserv Single Provider Solution Using UniFi PRO and MortgageServ
http://www.fiservlendingsolutions.com/news/newsDetails.aspx?
ReleaseID=6b561a9e-c47e-4288-9dd6-665933ef6bc0
Orlando Business Journal; Marriott Vacation Club Honored for Sales Excellence
http://orlando.bizjournals.com/orlando/stories/2003/05/12/daily22.html
Fairways Publication; Something for Every Family at Shadow Ridge
http://63.251.153.54/vacationclub/article_images/BIO1710802_1_H.pdf
A Special Kind of Room Service "Marriott's London offering is 47 Park Street… Owners can even leave behind photographs and clothing that can be unpacked prior to arrival." Financial Times (UK) - July 15, 2006
http://search.ft.com/ftArticle?queryText=Grand+Residence+Marriott&y=7&aje=true
&x=14&id=060714005876
3. Provide a brief (up to 100 words) biography about the leader(s) of the nominated organization/department:
Peter J. Watzka, Chief Customer Officer & Senior Vice President Marketing, Sales, Service, Operations, is responsible for all Customer contact processes for the company’s four brands—Horizons by Marriott Vacation Club, Marriott Vacation Club, Marriott Grand Residence Club and The Ritz-Carlton Club. Several of his responsibilities include strategic planning, new-product development, brand management, partner alliances, database marketing, advertising and communications, e-strategy, sales training, vacation services, financial services and operations. Since joining MVCI in 1990, Mr. Watzka has been instrumental in helping grow sales from $50 million to its current multi-billion level.