Expedia Cruises Oakville VoIP Upgrade

Inline Communications VoIP migration for Expedia Cruises Oakville from a traditional PBX to a modern VoIP platform.

Migrating Expedia Cruises Oakville, Local Office with Remote Agents, From feature lacking VoIP platform to Next Generation TelCloud Flex Hosted VoIP Platform

Expedia Cruises Oakville is a franchise location of one of North America’s largest cruise and vacation retail networks.The business operates with a mix of in-office staff and a large team of independent sales agents who work remotely, frequently traveling on cruise ships and to destinations across the Caribbean and beyond. Selling travel means being available to clients at all times, often from locations where traditional cell service and roaming are not practical options. A reliable, flexible phone system is essential to how the business operates.They require a phone system that supports a distributed team, provides full call center capabilities, and gives management clear visibility into agent activity regardless of where those agents are in the world.

CHALLENGES

1. The existing system lacked the features needed to support their business model, including call center capabilities, routing, and agent management.
2. There was no softphone capability, meaning agents had to be at a physical desk phone to make or receive calls.
3. Remote agents working abroad had no way to connect to the business phone system without incurring expensive roaming and long distance charges.
4. Calls forwarded to agents’ personal cell phones ended up in personal voicemail with no distinction between business and personal calls, and no way to capture those interactions within the business system.
5. The owner had no visibility into agent activity, with no reporting, no call statistics, and no way to see whether remote agents were active, available, or handling calls.
6. There was no call recording available, meaning there was no way to monitor quality, coach agents, or retain a record of client interactions.
7. There was no voicemail-to-email, meaning messages left in the system had no reliable way of reaching agents who were off-site or traveling.
8. Incoming leads had no structured routing or queuing, with no way to distribute calls systematically across the team.
9. Replacing the existing Grandstream desk phones would have added unnecessary hardware cost to the migration.
10. The business was at risk of falling behind as the platform had no path for updates or new features without additional cost or effort.

SOLUTIONS

1. Inline Communications migrated Expedia Cruises Oakville to TelCloud Flex, a hosted VoIP platform with full call center capabilities, structured routing, agent management, and softphone support.
2. All 25 remote sales agents were set up with mobile softphone apps and personally trained by Inline staff, allowing them to make and receive calls from any device without being tied to a desk phone.
3. TelCloud Flex softphones were configured to connect over Wi-Fi, allowing remote agents to use the business phone system from anywhere in the world at no long distance or roaming cost.
4. Each agent was assigned a direct business extension on the TelCloud Flex platform. All calls are made and received within the business system, with no forwarding to personal cell phones and no risk of calls landing in personal voicemail.
5. The statistics and reporting module was deployed, giving the owner a full real-time and historical view of call activity across all 25 agents, including availability status, call volumes, and how calls are being handled.
6. Call recording was enabled across the platform, capturing every inbound and outbound call and storing them in an accessible archive for quality monitoring, coaching, and client interaction records.
7. Voicemail-to-email was configured for every agent, delivering audio files and transcriptions directly to their inbox so no message goes unnoticed regardless of where they are.
8. Call queues and inbound routing were configured across the team, ensuring incoming leads are distributed systematically to available agents rather than landing on a single line or going unanswered.
9. Because TelCloud Flex is built on an open SIP platform, the existing Grandstream desk phones in the office were reprogrammed and reused at no additional hardware cost. All five in-office phones were retained and kept in service.
10. As a fully hosted platform, TelCloud Flex receives automatic updates and new features at no additional cost, ensuring the business always has access to the latest capabilities without any additional investment or effort.

BENEFITS

1. Expedia Cruises Oakville now has a phone system built to support their business model, with full call center capabilities, structured routing, and the tools needed to manage a distributed team of 25 agents.
2. Agents are no longer tied to a desk. Whether in the office or on the road, every agent has full access to the business phone system from their mobile device using the same extension they would have at their desk.
3. Remote agents sailing in the Bahamas or on location anywhere in the world can connect to the business phone system over Wi-Fi and handle calls as if they were sitting in the Oakville office, with no long distance charges and no dependence on cell coverage.
4. Every call is now made and received within the TelCloud Flex platform. Agents have a dedicated business extension, calls no longer forward to personal phones, and nothing ends up in a personal voicemail outside the business system.
5. The owner now has full visibility into the entire team. The reporting portal shows who is working, who is available, who is receiving calls, and how calls are being handled across all 25 agents in real time and historically.
6. Every call is recorded and stored, giving management a searchable archive they can use to monitor quality, coach agents, and maintain a complete record of client interactions.
7. Voicemail is delivered to every agent’s email as both an audio file and a text transcription. No message goes unnoticed because an agent was traveling or away from their phone.
8. Incoming leads are now distributed through configured queues and routing rules, ensuring calls reach available agents systematically and no lead falls through because of poor call handling.
9. By reprogramming the existing Grandstream desk phones rather than replacing them, Expedia Cruises Oakville avoided an unnecessary hardware cost that would otherwise have been part of the migration.
10. The platform updates automatically, meaning the business always has access to the latest features and improvements without any additional cost, planning, or effort on their part.