MEET OUR MANAGEMENT TEAM
Our Travel Outlook hotel call center management team includes software industry, travel industry and hotel professionals. We each bring a specialized skill to our company. Together we are YOUR team with decades of experience we’ll put to work for you.
Amy Cober
Director of Training
Brett Puffenberger
Vice-President Operations
Bruce Malott
Chief Financial Officer
Carolina Simoes
Director of Client Services
Gail Mckee
Accounting Manager
John Smallwood
President | Business Development
Kimberly Samuelson
Director of Client Management | Human Resources Director
Lisa Urbassik
Technical Account Manager | Annette/Digital Business Manager
Ryan Bromberg
Treasury Management
Shamim Arman
Controller
Tony Jeffries
Chief Executive Officer | Legal Counsel
Towanda Foster
Director of Call Center Services
NINE ESSENTIAL BENEFITS OF TRAVEL OUTLOOK’S SERVICES
- It’s less expensive for us to answer your calls. It’s a common reaction for hotels to think they are reducing expense by answering calls in-house, but that’s just not the case. Using the universal goal of answering 80% of calls within 30 seconds, if a hotel receives 25 reservations calls a day, Travel Outlook would save the hotel more than $9,000 a month – and Travel Outlook’s trained hotel call center reservations agents will generate more revenue by closing more sales at a higher ADR. The reason for this is simple: calls do not arrive in a predictable pattern, but payroll doesn’t – it’s fixed and recurring. Training can be expensive, too. These costs continue whether the phone rings, or not – they are fixed costs. Using Travel Outlook, answering calls is a variable expense. Some expenses are meant to be variable, and answering the phone is a prime example.
- We offer complete transparency. We record and store all our calls for a minimum of two years, so you will always have access to a record of what happened with every call we handle. And our software converts the calls to text, allowing you to keyword-search to find any call with a specific topic of interest. Best of all, we will provide you with a log in so you can search the call database whenever you like.
- Travel Outlook helps to increase your average daily rate. As our primary focus, we will drive rate. The hotel experience of our team coupled with a strict adherence to the Kennedy Training Network sales process virtually guarantees this.
- We’ll help to increase occupancy. Our hotel call center team closes up to 70% of qualified reservations calls. Based on our experience, we project that our team will help to increase occupancy in your property.
- We offer consistency. No more worries about seasonal turnover and training in reservations – we will always be there, ready, and selling consistently – and always with the knowledge that we are only paid on consumed rooms.
- We help improve social marketing ratings (sites such as TripAdvisor). By allowing your front desk team to concentrate on in-house clients, we can help to maintain and positively impact your TripAdvisor and other social marketing website rankings.
- We help increase net operating income (NOI) by lessening dependence on wholesaler bookings. There are dozens of online options for a traveler booking your hotel, and it can cause confusion. Often, your customers simply pick up the phone to ensure they’re getting the best available rate. And when they call, we’ll be there and ready to convert those calls to revenue.
- We learn and honor your brand equity. We understand that you have a defined marketing message, and we present your brand message clearly to reinforce its positioning. To support this, we record every call, and our transparent system allows you to listen to how we are presenting your hotel and change any part of our delivery.
- Professional reporting. Our sophisticated reporting provides critical marketing information you can use to earn a better return from your marketing budget. We will tell you exactly what happened with each reservations call, including a full denial report.