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A newsletter published by the
International
Association of Reservation Executives
Issue 25, December 2004
IARE
International Meeting: Melbourne, Australia
The IARE International Meeting held
in
September in Melbourne, Australia was well attended. The 14
individuals that were present, represented the following companies:
Accor Hotels and Resorts, Carlson Hotels Asia Pacific, Europcar,
FlagChoice Hotels, Hallis Consultants, Hilton Hotels and Resorts, Hyatt International Hotels and
Resorts, InterContinental Hotels Group, Marriott Hotels and Resorts, Quest
Apartments and Voyages Hotels.
LeAnne Crocker, Hyatt
International Resorts, led topics of discussion including:
training in a central environment, working with the individual,
maintaining excellence through standards, maintaining quality, general
business, reconstructing teams and management motivation. There was a presentation
by Lucy Wallace of Hallis Consultants and the meeting concluded with a tour of The Hyatt
Centre.
Access
meeting minutes here: http://www.iare.com/regionalmeetings/regionalmeetings.htm
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IARE
Regional Meeting: Omaha, Nebraska
Carlson
Hospitality Worldwide hosted the 3rd annual Midwest regional meeting
on Wednesday, November 17, 2004.
IARE
President, Dan Hoesing, Director of Reservation Services and Customer
Service for Carlson Hospitality Worldwide presided over the meeting.
IARE Regional Meeting chair, David Townsend with staff member Suzann
Vlaanderen, also from Carlson, hosted.
All
of the hotel reservation centers in Omaha participated
including Marriott, Hyatt, Omni and Carlson. In addition,
representatives from Drury Inns of Cape Girardeau, Missouri and AAA
Nebraska also attended. The meeting was sponsored and
lunch provided by eTalk, represented by Julie Postma.
Dan
gave an overview of the benefits of IARE and shared pictures and
memories from the annual convention.
David
and Suzann facilitated a best practices sharing session entitled
“Benchmarking with IARE” and each participating center
contributed. Topics covered included: Performance
Coaching, Sales Rep Monitoring, Customer
Satisfaction, Fun
and Entertaining Training and Self
Service.
Access
meeting minutes here: http://www.iare.com/regionalmeetings/regionalmeetings.htm
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Coping
with Hurricane Ivan
Submitted
by: Tricia
Wisehart, The Hertz Corporation
Hertz
opened a call center in Saraland (Mobile), Alabama in 2000.
We knew there was a possibility of hurricanes in that location
and we maintained up-to-date hurricane preparedness plans and
conducted drills in the event it ever actually happened.
Of course being the eternal optimist, I was sure it never
would!
As we all
know, September 2004 was a bad month for hurricanes for many of us.
When we received notice that Hurricane Ivan was headed directly
towards Mobile, Alabama, we immediately put our plans in motion.
Nothing beats a real live test! We notified our employees we would be closing our Saraland
center on Tuesday night and provided them with a telephone number they
could use to check re-opening status. We sent a team of
facilities people into Mobile to assist the
onsite folks and they went about securing our facility and equipment.
We called in the cavalry in our Oklahoma City facility, which
meant soliciting assistance from anyone in our multiple Hertz
locations in Oklahoma City who had ever worked in reservations.
In addition, we booked as much overtime as we could get for the
next few days to try to compensate for suddenly losing almost half of
our domestic reservations staff.
Luckily,
after the hurricane blew through on Thursday night, we were able to
get back into our facility on Friday morning to power up our
generators and start powering up our equipment. Local utility services
returned that afternoon and we began notifying employees we would
reopen on Saturday morning. We
continued to employ overtime staff in Oklahoma City through the weekend as
we knew we would have employees who were not able to get back to work
right away due to power outages and/or damage in their areas.
Although
it’s not a test I want to repeat any time in the near future,
Hurricane Ivan taught us how important it is to pull together as a
team and to be thankful that our facility and our employees’ homes
were not devastated as in some other areas.
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Handling
Weather
Emergencies
Submitted by:
Ronda J. Trog, North
American Reservations
Best Western International, INC.
As I
wrote
this article, Hurricane Ivan was rushing toward Jamaica.
As we all know, weather emergencies, especially hurricanes,
create havoc in a travel call center.
When the
call volume increases drastically due to the hurricane and the
conversion rate raises and then drops due to lack of availability,
call center metrics are meaningless. I want to share with you how we handled the situation
recently in our office.
Maintaining
staff morale is critical during these situations.
Here are some things we did to help.
-
Advised
agents that statistics for sales would not be considered for the
“hurricane days”.
-
Supervisors
walked refreshment carts through the call center during the
busiest days offering some sustenance to get agents through call
after call after call.
-
Once
the crisis was over, we advised the staff that we would review
their individual sales efforts for each day and compare to their
performance prior to the hurricane calls.
If the day was at or above their “pre-storm”
performance we would include the statistics into their average and
if the performance was below their “pre-storm” performance we
would not include the data. This
let the agents know that trying to sell was still critical but if
you were unable to convert up to your usual level, there would be
no penalty.
To
handle the increased volume we:
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Plan
Now to Attend the 2005 IARE Conference: April 23-27, 2005
The
Hilton Dallas Lincoln Centre, Dallas, Texas
The IARE represents thousands of individuals who serve in executive or
management roles within hundreds of travel and hospitality contact
centers worldwide. Within our membership lies a vast amount of
knowledge and experience in the travel and hospitality reservations
industry. The ability to tap and share that knowledge and experience
accounts for a large measure of its value to YOU, our members. With
representatives from hotels, airlines, car rentals, rail and cruise
lines, and city convention and visitor bureaus, you’ll get to meet
and mingle with more than 100 call center executives and managers at
the IARE Annual Conference.
The IARE's
2005 Conference will deliver maximum value for your investment and
promises to be an experience you can’t afford to miss! Our
Conference Planning Committee has "raised the bar" again
this year to bring you:
-
More content-rich sessions
-
More interactive learning
opportunities
-
More expert speakers
-
More facilitated
discussions
-
A broad selection of
discussion topics
-
Valuable take-aways
-
Supplier showcase and
product demonstrations
-
Vital networking and
idea-sharing opportunities
Conference
Registration Fees
-
$695 U.S. for first
registrant from an IARE Member company
-
$645 U.S. for each
additional registrant from IARE Member company
-
$1,095 U.S. for Non-Member
registrants
For more details regarding
the IARE 2005 Conference visit: http://www.iare.com/Conference/2005/conference.htm
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Reasons
You Need Your Association
As
we head into 2005, it is obvious the rules of business and
communication are still drastically changing. Embrace these changes by
taking advantage of your Association's
resources and learn how that journey can be more prosperous.
If
you haven’t renewed your membership in IARE, you can submit securely
on-line here.
As a reminder, here are the top nine reasons you’ll need your
membership in IARE in 2005:
1.
Interact with people in your profession
With the rise in the use of email and web technologies for
communicating with others, you now have a number of ways to keep in
touch thanks to your association. We are strong advocates of
technological advancements, but we also realize that continuing to
provide a face to face link to colleagues will allow you to put
names to faces and keep in touch with who's doing what.
2.
Sharpen your skills
By attending educational sessions, seminars, conferences and visiting
exhibits and expositions, you will stay on top of your professional
game. Taking advantage of your association's educational opportunities
allows you to update your crucial job skills for this new millennium.
3.
Collaboration
In the information age, the exchange of ideas and information and the
need to work with others will prove easier with the assistance of
associations.
4.
Get frequent updates on changes in the profession
As change occurs at a faster pace, keeping track of the latest
industry techniques and trends will be difficult. However, through
publications, educational sessions and web sites, you will hear about
the newest innovations and never question whether you are behind the
times. With this information, you can do your job in a timelier and
more economical manner.
5.
Increase your clout
Associations are a great place to build a name for yourself. Although
you may not feel you're moving ahead in your current job, getting and
remaining involved in professional activities will bring you to
another level in your career.
6.
Save time and money
When seeking the ideas and know-how for a specific project, don't
reinvent the wheel. Your association has the tools to direct you in
the right directions, saving you valuable time and money.
7.
Receive quality service
As the lines begin to blur between customer and member service,
associations are focusing on how they are affecting your bottom line.
You will always receive top-notch assistance from IARE. When you need
help, whether it's for personal or professional gain, count on your
association to provide one-step guidance.
8.
Find business partners (networking)
As acquisitions and mergers occur at a more frequent pace and
strategic alliance and partnerships become the norm, you'll most
likely find a sound business partner through your association.
9.
Anticipate and prepare for your future
Associations envision how the profession will look in the coming
years. While you are focusing on maintaining your daily operation,
your association is looking at what is to come and will provide you
with opportunities.
Don't
miss your opportunity to participate in IARE in 2005; take advantage
of the tools your membership offers. To join or renew, visit: https://www.assnoffice.com/IARE/memberapplication.html.
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IARE
Needs You!
Get
involved in an IARE Committee. For more information, contact IARE
of the Committee Chair directly.
Awards
Chairs: Penny Horan phoran@carlson.com
Yolanda
Lowe yolanda.lowe@innlink.com
Communications
& Technology
Chair: Ronda Trog ronda.trog@bestwestern.com
Conference
Chair: Denise Pullen dpullen@omaropo.hyatt.com
Membership
Chair: Tricia Wisehart pwisehart@hertz.com
Regional/International Meetings
Chairs: Michele Rowan mrowan@hiltonres.com
David
Townsend dtownsend@carlson.com
Sign up on-line:
http://www.iare.com/committees.htm
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Members
Only
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?
See
new postings on the IARE On-line Bulletin Board
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About
IARE-News
The IARE-News is a quarterly publication
distributed electronically to provide ongoing communication and
information for IARE Members.
The IARE’s Communications & Technology Committee produces
IARE E-News.
Articles
may be submitted via email to iare@assnoffice.com
and are subject to acceptance and editing by the Communications and
Technology Committee.
Archives:
E-News: June,
2004
E-News: March,
2004
E-News: November,
2003
E-News: July,
2003
E-News: March, 2003
E-News: December,
2002
E-News: October,
2002
E-News: July, 2002
E-News: March, 2002
E-News: December,
2001
E-News: September,
2001
E-News: June,
2001
E-News: April, 2001
E-News:
February, 2001
E-News, December 2000
IARE ...
The Travel Call Center People
Connecting people in every corner of the world
7853
East Arapahoe Court #2100
Centennial, Colorado 80112-1361 U.S.A.
Phone 303-694-4728
Fax 303-694-4869
iare@assnoffice.com
© 2004 -- International Association of Reservation
Executives -- All rights reserved.
Last edit 12/15/04
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