Veta Dimmick, Senior Manager, Member Services, Exploria Resorts: CEP Finalist
The 4th annual CustomerCount Customer Engagement Professional (CEP) Resort Trades Award (CEP) became a decision making nightmare for the expert panel of judges who reviewed the nominations for this coveted award. The quality of the nominees was exceptionally high. Each of the applications contained detailed narratives describing outstanding leaders who exemplify customer engagement within the timeshare resort/hospitality industry. Nominated candidates included managers, assistant managers, front desk staff members and customer service team members who are in daily contact with members and guests. Companies who participated ranged from resort developers in the U.S. and Mexico, service providers and management companies.
Despite that each nominee seemed even more deserving than the next, the panel settled in on a group of superb candidates including Veta Dimmick, Senior Manager, Member Services, Exploria Resorts. Veta finished in the top three.
Companies who participate in the award receive equal recognition as the nominated individuals. Their corporate culture centers around customer service and engagement. This is why CEP honors both the entity and the team members who thrive in an environment that puts the customer first.
For more than 23 years, Exploria Resorts has been bringing their guests and members affordable vacation experiences from the comfort of spacious and stylish home resort accommodations. The branded vacation ownership product, Club Exploria boasts nearly 85,000 members.
And Veta, as a consummate professional, leads a team of nearly 50 call center agents. She was nominated for this award long before we had even heard the word coronavirus. And she has not faltered in continuing to excel in her role.
Veta is a problem solver extraordinaire. She has decades of experience in many facets of timeshare. She started working in a telemarketing call center on a lark just to make a few bucks. She rose through the ranks to lead various teams in marketing. Due to re-structuring, she switched gears to work in the member services department and now provides training and answers on a daily basis. To monitor the guest satisfaction with the agents, she reviews daily CustomerCount® Contact Center surveys that provide real-time feedback. When she saw a trend with agents receiving low scores on “knowledge”, she jumped into action and devised a plan for the front line supervisors to have “one-on-one” meetings with every agent every two weeks so that their phone calls could be reviewed. The “knowledge” scores increased by 12% within two months.
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‘Three alarm fires’ are typical for this nominee’s day and she handles it all with grace. With the recent dictates regarding social distancing, Veta embraced technology to communicate with her team. Exploria’s flagship resort Summer Bay Orlando continued to accept members during the shut down and Veta’s team was hurled into a logistics frenzy. Her strength and energy pervades all she does. The call center crew followed her lead in calmly following procedures to deal with the cancellations, rescheduling and rebooking that exploded during the months of March and April.
She is a huge asset to the member services department because she understands the ultimate goal of every timeshare company is to sell. When answering a problem, she looks at it from every angle. Will this solution get a tour? Will the tour be more likely to buy? As a tribute to Veta’s excellence, everyone on the sales team knows that this she is their “go-to”. When an owner has a problem understanding how to make reservations, she listens for clues. Was it their home resort reservation rules? Was it their exchange company reservation rules? Was it a third-party? By listening carefully to what the sales representative and owner tells her, she can determine who is best able to answer the concern. The sales team has become so confident in her answers that they will bring prospective buyers to the member services department to meet the team that will provide their service.
The CustomerCount Customer Engagement Professional (CEP) Resort Trades Award (CEP) is proud to honor customer engagement professionals like Veta Dimmick. Club Exploria Members are richer in their timeshare involvement with folks like Veta making sure they have exceptional vacation memories no matter where or when they choose to go.
