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17, October, 2002 A special e-mail newsletter of the International Association of Reservation Executives. IN THIS ISSUE
Networking Made Possible Through IARE Regional Meetings Looking for more opportunities to network with others in your industry? IARE Regional Meetings offer the perfect opportunity to learn more about your business and to gather ideas and solutions to help to deal with some of our industry challenges. Here is your chance to learn from the best! August 1, 2002 marked the IARE's first Midwest U.S. Regional Meeting. More than twenty Reservation Center Managers attended the informational gathering, hosted by Carlson Hospitality Worldwide in Omaha, Nebraska. The agenda included a Workforce Management Overview and luncheon sponsored by Erv Prince from IEX, and culminated with a Workforce Management Call Center forum sharing best practices. On Monday, October 21, 2002, the IARE's Southeast U.S. Regional Meeting is scheduled to take place in Tampa, Florida, at the beautiful Continental Airlines Reservations facility. A call center forum focusing on creative staffing ideas will follow a luncheon sponsored by Willow CSN. Please register to attend this meeting at: http://www.iare.com/regionalmeetings/regional_tampa.html Other regional meetings are tentatively slated for the Southwestern U.S. in January, 2003 and the South Central U.S. in March, 2003. If you are interested in hosting or sponsoring an IARE Regional Meeting or have a specific subject to discuss at an upcoming meeting or, please contact the IARE office at iare@assnoffice.com. IARE membership dues are prorated for new members who join after October 1, 2002, to include membership through December, 2003. If you know a call center colleague or a supplier company who would benefit from participation in IARE, why not invite them now? Click here for more information about IARE and an online application form: http://www.iare.com/membership.html IARE
18th Annual Conference & Exhibition The IARE's Conference Planning Committee has announced exciting plans for the association's upcoming conference in Seattle! Based on concepts from Seattle's world famous Pike Place Fish Market, IARE has teamed with BizFutures Consulting Company to present an inspirational and educational program on Monday, April 27th. This four-hour interactive session will address the key topics of Beyond Customer Service: An Opportunity to Make a Difference; Loving What You Do, Doing What You Love; and Creative Listening. This year's Conference workshops will focus on two panel discussions. One workshop will feature a panel of key executives from the car rental, airline and hotel segments who will discuss how they balance performance and cost. A second workshop will include E-Learning experts who will address the concept of e-learning and how to effectively use this technology for employee training. A new feature to be introduced at the 2003 Conference is Discussion Groups, facilitated sessions to allow members to share ideas and discuss trends in the specific areas of Reservations, Customer Service and Human Resources. Other functions of the Conference include:
The WestCoast Grand Hotel is centrally located in downtown Seattle, close to shopping and restaurants, with easy access to the Monorail to Seattle Center and a few blocks walking distance from Pike Place Market. The hotel is offering specially discounted group rates of $130 single/double for IARE conference participants. A preliminary schedule is available on the IARE's web site at: http://www.iare.com/Conference/2003_conference.htm The Conference promises to be one of the best yet! So please…mark your calendars NOW and start making plans to attend! See you in Seattle! New IVR Application Delivers Quick Feedback at Hilton Reservations Worldwide In July of this year, Hilton Reservations Worldwide developed a back-end IVR application to prompt Guests to evaluate the quality of their reservations experience. While on route to reservations confirmation, a percentage of Guests are asked if they would like to participate, and those that do respond to a brief survey regarding the quality of their experience with Hilton Reservations Worldwide. In addition, Guests who choose to can take the process a step further by leaving voice comments (after they complete the survey) in a dedicated box. The results have been astonishing. Percentages of those participating from the prompt have ranged in the 30s consistently, and HRW has been able to gain very quick and meaningful information from Guests about the reservations process, the frequent stay program, and quality of agent support. That information is distributed to the six US contact centers within days of receipt for agent recognition/feedback and reservations fixes (when appropriate). This measurement has been added to the evaluation of overall system call quality, which is a key component in the performance based incentive program at HRW. Lastly, hotel brands are sent monthly results, which provides them with more confidence in the quality of the support the contact centers are providing. A win for Guests, for Hilton Hotels and for HRW! For more information, please contact Michele Rowan at Hilton Reservations Worldwide. Carlson Hospitality Worldwide Reservations Center Headquartered in Omaha, Nebraska, U.S.A., the Carlson Hospitality Worldwide Reservations Center serves as the hub for global business delivery for over 815 hotel locations and six cruise ships operating on all seven continents. The brands served by the Reservations Center include Regent International Hotels, Radisson Hotels & Resorts, Park Plaza hotels, Country Inns & Suites By Carlson, Park Inn hotels and Radisson Seven Seas Cruises. The company has satellite offices in Dublin, Ireland; Sydney, Australia; Mexico City, Mexico; and five offices in India in Delhi, Mumbai (Bombay), Calcutta, Bangalore, and Chennai. The center processes 22,000 calls daily, taking reservations from 53 countries. Carlson's online reservations reach 125 countries and connect to 455,000 travel agents via the Global Distribution Systems (GDS), processing 80,000 GDS transactions daily. Carlson Hospitality's reservations center was honored in 2001 with the prestigious international lodging Hermes Award for having the "Best Reservations Center" in the industry. Carlson was selected for its outstanding capabilities in reservation distribution through its several channels including the Internet, GDS and toll-free phone. Carlson was also cited for its award-winning reservations system, Curtis-C, which generates over 7.9 million room nights per year. Who are Your IAR E-News Readers? The IARE-News is currently emailed to the designated Principal and Associate member representatives for each participating member organization. Individuals who are employed by IARE member firms may participate on IARE committees and these individuals may also subscribe to the IAR E-News by contacting the IARE association office at iare@assnoffice.com. Alamo Rent A Car:
Willow Really Works "We view Willow’s virtual network of independent contractor CSRs – the CyberAgents - as another call center for Alamo," says Keith Brender, vice president of customer communications for Alamo-Rent-A-Car, Inc., a subsidiary of ANC Rental Company, which also owns National Car Rental. "In fact, Willow is the only outsourcer that ANC uses." Unlike traditional contact centers, Willow does not maintain a facility staffed by customer service representatives (CSRs). Rather, its network of highly qualified independent contractors, called CyberAgent CSRs™, operate remotely from their home offices and are managed by clients through Willow’s proprietary workforce management technology. Brender oversees all three of ANC’s in-house call centers. Alamo went live with Willow in October 1999, becoming one of the company’s earliest clients. Flexibility is one of the key
reasons Alamo has stayed with the Willow network. Willow’s
CyberAgents handle the overflow call volume from Alamo’s general
reservations number, while its customer service calls stay with
in-house CSRs. Using Willow’s proprietary workforce management
technology, StarMatic™, and the Internet, Alamo routes more than 10
percent of the general reservation calls during peak calling hours.
When call volume increases during the summer months and winter
holidays, Alamo can direct more of these calls through the Willow
network. "We can just post our need for additional hours through the StarMatic™ scheduling component, as late as 30-minutes before we need CyberAgents to take calls. Usually they grab the extra hours within minutes," explains Brender. Brender says quality is another key reason for using the Willow network, commenting, "The CyberAgents are exceptionally good. In fact, if they weren’t as productive as in-house CSRs, I wouldn’t continue to use them." He has found that CyberAgent CSRs™ follow the corporate training rules exceptionally well; as a result, the remote agents have very high value bookings. Brender notes that CyberAgent CSR™ attrition has been very low, particularly when compared with that of in-house agents. Today, there are approximately 200 agents working for Alamo. Today’s Alamo agents are the same ones who trained with the company when it first joined Willow. Brender attributes this to Alamo’s efforts to maintain a good relationship with its virtual agents, as well as the differences in pay structure. "Unlike our in-house CSRs, who are paid an hourly wage regardless of whether the phone rings or not, we only pay the Willow CyberAgents for the calls that they take," says Brender. "If we don’t route the CyberAgents calls, they don’t make money, and won’t want to take calls for Alamo anymore. We don’t want this to happen, so we make sure the CyberAgents are satisfied with their daily call volume." Brender goes on to say that this pay-for-performance model circumvents a key issue that he faces regularly with his in-house agents – competition with other call centers for in-house agents. "Our call center facility is located in an area with other call centers nearby. If a competing center increases its hourly wage to attract more candidates, Alamo will experience increased turnover as agents jump ship," he explains. "This doesn’t happen with the Willow CyberAgents because they can control their income to a certain extent, based on the hours that they work and the clients that they work for." Brender summed up his Willow experience, saying, "Willow really works, it’s easy, and it gives us a lot of flexibility. In short, it’s a no-brainer." For more information, contact Keith Brender at ANC Rental Corp. Bulletin Board Makes It Easy to Exchange Information Want an easy way to exchange requests for information electronically with members? Now you can through IARE’s new on-line Bulletin Board! The Bulletin Board was designed to allow IARE members to solicit input and share ideas with other members through our web site. To access the Bulletin Board, simply log-on to the Members Only section of the IARE web site and click on Bulletin Board. Your statement or inquiry will be posted immediately and remain there for approximately 60 days. IARE will send periodic email reminders to alert you when new messages are posted. Eventually, we hope that you will use this resource frequently to ask questions and exchange ideas. We hope you enjoy these new benefits of IARE membership! Updating the Primary and Associate Member List Have you visited our On-Line Membership Directory lately? Please take a minute to verify your directory listing and report changes via email to the IARE office. The directory is updated every 6-8 weeks. IARE
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International Association of Reservation Executives
7853 East Arapahoe Court #2100, Centennial, Colorado 80112-1361 U.S.A.
Phone (303) 694-4728 Fax (303) 694-4869
iare@assnoffice.com
© 2002 -- International Association of Reservation Executives --
All rights reserved.
Last Edit 12/02/02