Speakers of Customer Service & Marketing Seminar 2003, Partners in Business, College of Business, Utah State University

Jeff Adams, Manager of Training and Quality Assurance
Continental Airlines

First Class Service at 30,000 Feet and Below

Jeff has been with Continental Airlines for 10 years. As the manager of training and quality assurance for the airline’s reservation call center in Salt Lake City, Jeff is responsible for training approximately 800 employees. He co-developed and currently manages Continental’s new Quality Assurance Program, an initiative that increased the call center’s productivity and raised customer satisfaction. In 2003, Continental Airlines received the Call Center of the Year Award.

Jeff will explain how Continental’s award-winning quality assurance program achieves balance in customer service, sales, and production. He will share the success secrets that have earned the airline numerous awards, and inclusion on Fortune’s 100 Best Places to Work list for the last five years. Jeff will also explain how Continental’s philosophy that happy employees equal happy customers catapulted the airline from “worst to first” in the Customer Service category. You will learn how current strategies have reduced employee turnover to less than five percent in the airline’s three domestic call centers, and how management ensures that each of the 5,200 reservation agents make the connection between their performance goals and the company’s “Go Forward Plan.”