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IARE-News

Conference Update           return to top

International Association of Reservation Executives
19th Annual Conference
April 24-28, 2004
The Westin Grand Hotel, Washington, DC  U.S.A.

Don’t miss presentations such as:
What It's Going to Take to be Ready for Tomorrow!: Answers on How to Keep Pace with Customers and Management in a Rapidly Changing Industry

Presented by:
David A. Goldsmith
MetaMatrix Consulting Group

Managing the process of reservations used to be hectic yet predictable.  Today it's anything but predictable. The industry is changing at lightning speed.  Call centers are being cut in half due to technology. Managers are being called upon to be more strategic, good employees are even harder to find, and the future seems to be more of the same.  So then what do you do?  How do you increase your value, control your job, and create new opportunities. 

In this session you will learn

• How to move from being tactical to strategic…

• How to develop solutions quickly for you and your team…

• What it takes to sell as a manager…

• Where to find your value…

• How to really empower employees…

• How to develop essential skills to rapidly solve tomorrow's         challenges today.

The following exhibitors and sponsors are confirmed to participate:

Bay Bridge Decision Technologies, Annapolis, MD
IEX, a Tekelec Company, Richardson, TX
Rockwell FirstPoint Contact, Wood Dale, IL
ScanSoft (formerly SpeechWorks), Boston, MA
Sykes Enterprises, Inc., Tampa, FL
Virtual-Agent Services, Schamburg, IL
Interior Concepts, Spring Lake, MI
FurstPerson, Chicago, IL
WillowCSN, Inc., Miramar, FL

For details and to register secure on line, please visit
http://www.iare.com/Conference/2004/conference.htm

Regional & International Meetings                              return to top

IARE Hosts First International Meeting in London                                                      
by Michele Rowan, Senior Director, Europe, Middle East, Africa,
Hilton Reservations Worldwide

The inaugural London IARE meeting, hosted by TouchBase, was held February 12, 2004.  Five companies were represented and yielded five hours of productive, stimulating interaction.  Subjects included:

• Agent recruiting
• Recruiting for languages,
• Agent incentives and bonus schemes
• Call quality programs and vendors
• IVR and technology updates from TouchBase
• Productivity measurements and conversion
• Consolidated hotel calls
• Automated call quality systems
• Part-time versus full-time staffing
• Personality and behavioral testing
• Follow the sun call routing – world-wide
• IARE – who we are, what we do, membership and conference

Participants felt that more frequent meetings in London would be beneficial.

The first International Meeting in the Middle East was held on January 11, 2004 at the Jumarah Beach Hilton in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. Subjects that were discussed in the meeting included:

• Who is IARE, the role, membership, and Regional meetings
• Agents incentives and bonuses
• General trending in call activity and reservations
• Occupancy and productivity
• Monitoring agent performance
• Technology in scheduling and call switches

The group was surprised at the amount of common interest points, and also acknowledged the fact that networking in the Middle East had been virtually non-existent up to this point with the exception of one informal meeting held about six months ago.

At the close of the four hours together, all agreed that membership in IARE was valuable, that Regional Meetings were extremely valuable.

NOTE:  Regional and International Meeting hosts are still needed for the remainder of 2004.  If you would like to host a Regional or International Meeting in your area, please contact Dan Hoesing or David Townsend from the IARE Regional Meetings Committee.

Schedule Adherence                  return to top
by Ronda Trog, Director of North American Reservations,
Best Western International

It is enough to give employees and employers indigestion!
What is a reasonable amount of time off the phones?
How long is too long for a bathroom break? 

At Best Western, we found ourselves in a real dilemma…

Our previous process was to check schedule adherence twice each week.  It was up to a supervisor to identify any problems or trends developing with each agent on their team.   Our system was not bad, but certainly not great!  There was too much “discretion” on the part of the supervisors, which makes it hard for the agents.

We developed a very detailed way of evaluating manned time.  We ran scenarios that we thought covered every possible situation.  But once we implemented it in live testing, we found a big flaw – it didn’t take into account the various schedule lengths for some of our part-time staff.

In the end, we developed a whole new system.  Each agent has the opportunity to earn a total of 5 points each time we check their schedule adherence.  Points are earned as follows:

1. Login to phone within 3 minutes of the scheduled start of shift

2. No more than 17 minutes for each break and no more than 33 minutes for lunch

3. Logout of phone at scheduled end of shift or after 

4. 98% adherence or better

5. 96% adherence or better

If the agent earns the point for 98% adherence, then they automatically earn the point for 96% adherence.

If the agent falls below 96% adherence, then they earn no points at all.

If the agent takes more than 15 minutes for a break or 30 minutes for a lunch, the time comes out of the “free” time they have to still meet the 98% or 96% adherence.  

This program puts the responsibility squarely on the shoulders of the agent to manage their time.

Our agents are very excited at knowing exactly what the expectations are.  They also know that they are solely responsible for themselves.

Membership Update    return to top

Take the IARE Membership Challenge!
Recruit a new member to join IARE in 2004.  It’s easy as 1, 2, 3…

1. Talk to colleagues in the travel/hospitality industry who are not members of IARE
2. Explain the benefits of joining and ask them to visit IARE’s website to learn more
3. Ask them to complete the on-line membership form with your name as a referral

Your company can earn a $100 conference registration discount for each new member that you refer who joins IARE before April 15, 2004!

Can we count on you to help IARE grow? Pledge your support now!

E-Mail Management                           return to top
by Kristy Bolen, Manager of Customer Service Operations
Carlson Hospitality Worldwide

The World Wide Web offers our customers a great way to learn more about our hotels and make reservations, in addition to facilitating a simple means to communicate with us.  As more and more people are turning toward the web, communication in the form of e-mail is ever increasing, creating brand new challenges and customer expectations.  Some of these challenges include:

• Manual archiving of e-mails 

• No way to prioritize one email over another 

• No individual statistical reporting abilities 

• No SPAM control – E-mail Specialists are subjected to viewing unwanted e-mails

• No way to support multiple users attached to a single e-mail 

• Lack of auto-acknowledgement to the customer to let them know their e-mail has been received

• No way to automatically delete “out of office” or “undeliverable” messages, which only add to the queue 

• Inefficiencies -- 70% of the E-mail Specialist’s workweek is spent manually reporting, tracking, archiving and filtering messages

Carlson Hospitality Worldwide faced the challenges that came as a result of increasing technology – by turning toward technology itself.   KANA Response E-mail management system was the system of choice for Carlson.  Since implementing KANA in February 2003, Carlson reports the following successes:

ü       A 60% increase in E-mail Specialist productivity

ü       SPAM controls that eliminate unwanted e-mails before hitting Specialists’ computers, contributing to a more professional work environment

ü       Categorization and service levels attached, based on customer requests

ü       Ability to auto-acknowledge every e-mail, increasing level of customer service without adding to task load

ü       Auto deletion of “undeliverable” and “out of office” messages, eliminating manual intervention and increasing Specialist productivity

ü       Archiving is indefinite and automatic

ü       International key word rules have been created to automatically forward international e-mails to the appropriate centers.  KANA tracks the e-mails and makes sure they are responded to within service levels

ü       Allowances for multiple users to work on e-mails sent to a single e-mail address

ü       KANA is web based, so there is no need to support software at workstations

ü       Numerous reporting abilities from a brand level, agent level, and category level

ü       Built in auto-escalation rules to ensure compliance with service levels on each category

ü       “Hot Key” categories for easy responses – templates are easily loaded into the e-mail with a few key strokes

The liberties that KANA has created for Carlson has enabled them to provide a seamless, Customer-centric experience for the guest…the efficiencies gained in the department are just a fringe benefit!

Members Only    return to top

On-line Bulletin Board
See new postings on the IARE On-line Bulletin Board

On-line Bulletin Board
Would you like to get your fellow members’ opinions on a new software product or training program?  Are you using the IARE Member Bulletin Board? 

Post your questions to gain insight and help instantaneously.  The more it’s used, the more valuable this tool becomes.  TIP:  Schedule a “meeting” in your electronic or paper calendar at least once per week with the bulletin board.  Save time and money researching issues that have already been resolved by your peers.

PLEASE NOTE: The information posted on this Bulletin Board is available for all members to view. Please take care in composing the content of your message so you do not post comments that may offend or criticize any person, company and/or product.

About IARE-News

The IAR E-News is a quarterly publication distributed electronically to provide ongoing communication and information for IARE Members. The IARE's Communications & Technology Committee produces 
IAR E-News:

• Michele Rowan, Hilton Reservations Worldwide, London, England U.K. -- Co-chair
• Ronda Trog, Best Western International, Phoenix, Arizona U.S.A. -- Co-chair

Articles may be submitted via email to iare@assnoffice.com and are subject to acceptance and editing by the Communications & Technology Committee.