How Sircle Collection moved from inbox chaos to a scalable guest service centre

Sircle Collection replaced Outlook with Zendesk, supported by Premium Plus’ implementation and consulting, to gain control, visibility, and a scalable guest service operation.

Sircle Collection is a hospitality group with properties located in Europe’s most inspiring neighbourhoods. To move beyond an Outlook-based setup and scale guest communication, they partnered with Premium Plus and Zendesk.

Measurable impact

With Zendesk implemented and optimised by Premium Plus, Sircle Collection moved from fragmented inbox management to a structured, trackable guest service operation. Teams gained clearer ownership, smoother cross-hotel collaboration, and better visibility into what guests need, so they can keep improving service as the portfolio grows.

“We wanted to have one system where we could retract all the communication. So if a guest has enough data about themselves in the system, we can track phone calls, emails, chats and whatever. And it became more and more important for us because our guests are more global travellers.”

Michael Verhoeven, Commercial Project Manager at Sircle Collection

1. Challenge: When Outlook “worked”, but control didn’t

Sircle Collection had grown beyond what an Outlook-based setup could reasonably support. Guest communication lived across separate email boxes and processes, which created blind spots: limited visibility into volumes, unclear ownership, and an operational model that didn’t scale with every new property.

Most importantly, the approach couldn’t keep up with portfolio growth without adding more complexity and headcount. Exactly the opposite of what the team wanted as they evolved from admin-heavy work towards a guest service centre model.

“The mass of properties became unmanageable and unscalable. Every time we opened a new property, a new email box had to be created… But you can't just add three more people and just add three more email boxes and keep going.”

Michael Verhoeven, Commercial Project Manager at Sircle Collection

2. Solution: A guided Zendesk implementation built to scale

Sircle Collection chose Zendesk as the platform to centralise requests and standardise how teams manage guest enquiries. Premium Plus acted as the implementation and strategic partner, helping translate their requirements into a scalable setup, guiding key decisions, and supporting enablement so the team could adopt the new way of working confidently.

The focus wasn’t just “getting Zendesk live.” It was implementing Zendesk in a way that would work across multiple properties, languages, and teams, without overcomplicating the setup or creating future scaling issues.

“Because we don't have a Zendesk expert in our team. It's a huge undertaking for 15 properties, and we just needed a team that could guide us and help us make the right decisions.”

Michael Verhoeven, Commercial Project Manager at Sircle Collection

A practical, collaborative delivery approach

To avoid building something that would break later, Sircle Collection invested heavily in explaining what they needed upfront:

• Documenting processes clearly
• Defining requirements and success criteria
• Aligning stakeholders across locations and properties

Premium Plus then supported execution with clear collaboration and responsiveness (including a shared delivery workflow), so questions could be answered quickly and implementation could keep moving forward, without leaving the team stuck in “waiting mode”.

What we implemented together

Sircle Collection implemented Zendesk internally first (agent-facing):

• Zendesk Support to centralise and structure guest requests
• Zendesk Voice so that calls could be handled in the same environment
• Zendesk Copilot to help agents respond faster and more consistently

A key strategic choice was to keep the setup scalable by avoiding heavy customisation early on. This made it easier to roll out consistently and build on over time.

Making Copilot useful in daily work

Copilot wasn’t positioned as a novelty. It was embedded into how the team works, intending to improve consistency and first-time-right answers. Michael described Copilot’s purpose clearly:

“It's supposed to make sure that we give the first-time right answers to our guests, in the right wording of our brands, with the right context.”

Premium Plus also supported the team with practical enablement around knowledge content, showing them how to create and structure articles so Copilot could become genuinely useful in day-to-day replies.

“We deliberately kept the Zendesk build practical and scalable, using a strong ‘off-the-shelf’ approach and focusing on what would drive adoption. That foundation now makes it easier for Sircle Collection to expand into the next phases like self-service, bots, and deeper reporting.”

Bruno Muniz, CX Consultant

3. Results: Visibility, cooperation, and a strong foundation for what’s next

For Sircle Collection, success wasn’t only “we implemented Zendesk.” It was what changed operationally once they could finally see and manage the work.

Real reporting and control (for the first time)

Moving to Zendesk created immediate visibility into volumes across channels and properties:

“We know now exactly that we do 5,000 tickets in a month, we know exactly which property gets which phone calls, and we know which property gets the most emails.”

Michael Verhoeven, Commercial Project Manager at Sircle Collection

This is the kind of insight that lets teams stop guessing, start prioritising, and make improvements that carry across the organisation, not just within guest services.

Better team cooperation across properties

One of the biggest operational benefits was flexibility and cross-property coverage. This supports a consistent guest experience and makes it easier to manage peaks, staffing changes, and multi-property support, without reinventing the workflow per hotel.

Less reliance on memory with Copilot

With a growing portfolio, expecting agents to memorise every property detail is unrealistic. Copilot helps surface the right information for the right property at the right time.

4. Conclusion: A scalable guest service centre, with more still to come

Sircle Collection didn’t just replace Outlook. They built a scalable foundation for structured guest service, centralising communication, creating visibility, and enabling cross-property collaboration across countries.

And they’re not stopping here. The next phases will build on the platform they now have in place, including expanding self-service and bringing Zendesk further into the guest experience.

Premium Plus’ impact: Expertise plus better decisions

Michael’s summary is the core value proposition that potential buyers care about. Premium Plus doesn’t just “know Zendesk”, we help clients implement it in a way that holds up as they grow.

“It was not only the system knowledge that helped us, but also their experience that helped us make the right decisions on how to implement the system in our properties.”

Michael Verhoeven, Commercial Project Manager at Sircle Collection

If your team is still relying on shared inboxes, manual tracking, and “tribal knowledge” to manage customer or guest enquiries, scaling gets harder every month, especially as volumes rise and your organisation expands.

Premium Plus helps organisations implement and optimise Zendesk in a way that’s structured, scalable, and adopted by teams, so you can deliver consistently great service without constantly adding headcount.

Ready to centralise your support operation and unlock real visibility in Zendesk?

Contact Premium Plus to discuss Zendesk licensing, implementation, and optimisation.

Let’s build a Zendesk setup that fits your workflows today—and scales with you tomorrow.