Research and Sales Strategy at Resorts

Marriott Vacation Club International (MVCI) is wholly owned division of Marriott International, Inc. and is focused on the sales and management of Marriott vacation timeshare properties. MVCI has 7,500 associates with 55 resorts system wide. In their history, they have contributed over $5 billion in cumulative sales and amassed over 250,000 owners of MVCI properties. Their sales process was second to none in bringing new owners into the MVCI fold. But MVCI felt they could improve the service to their owners in the immediate timeframe just following the sale of an MVCI property and the time the owner closed on that property. In early 2005, MVCI contacted Matter.

Matter was engaged to investigate and optimize how MVCI stages information for owners across touchpoints within the Marriott Vacation Club International sales process with specific focus on “Yes” to Close. The purpose was to enable the intelligent exploration of how best to improve the MVCI brand experience for owners.

In order to accomplish our mission, Matter needed to understand the owner experience and overlay that on the MVCI sales process. We chose to observe both owners and key MVCI touchpoints, videotape the interactions between MVCI and owners, and interview the participants in the interactions. We selected the call center in Salt Lake City as one set of touchpoints (phone and email), and two sales centers (Newport Beach and Hilton Head) as another (tour, contracts, property).

Using the collected data, Matter performed a detailed analysis and summarized the research findings in terms of MVCI actions and processes and owner behaviors and responses. We then created a set of opportunities for improving the owner experience and both guidelines and solution ideas for those opportunities. Finally, we took a few promising ideas and created concepts to further illustrate directions the research recommendations could take.

“The team digs in from day one to understand objectives, what’s needed and what’s next. Working with them allowed us to move faster and farther than we would have been able to without their involvement. I strongly recommend their services.” – Christine Ebeltoft-Bancalari, Director of Brand Strategy, Marriott Vacation Club International

Project Photos