Lufthansa expands customer services

LUFTHANSA GERMAN
AIRLINES’ opening of its new
telephone reservations centre in
downtown Vancouver on March
18 represents the German air car-
tier’s growing commitment to the
Western Canadian market. By the
end of the year, the airline wi.”
have invested approximately
$500,000 beyond regular West
Coast Opeational costs, covering
extra office space and new com-
puter and telephone installations
as well as salaries for additional!
Vancouver staff.

“Our sales figures over the past
12 months support this investment
Strongly,’’ says Jurgen von
Yaldenwang, Lufthansa’s Passen-
ger Sales Manager for Western
Canada. ‘‘Ticket sales by our own
staff for Vancouver, Calgary and
Edmonton more than doubled be-
tween January 31, 1990 and
January 31 this year, and that
does not include bookings through
outside travel agents.””

Recognizing the importance of
serving Canada’s distinctive mar-
ketplaces separately, Lufthansa
will now accommodate Western
Canadians’ international travel ar-
rangements locally, no longer

through Toronto. The opening of
the new reservations centre in
Vancouver follows two years after
the opening of a Montreal centre,

and three years after one in
Toronto. (Until 1988, Canadian
bookings went through New
York.)

“We are determined to serve
each region in its own way, with
employees who are close to their
clients and@ understand their
specific problems,"’ says Adolf K.
Lanz, Lufthansa’s Vice President
for Canada. That’s why the train-
ing program of the new Van-
couver employees emphasizes cus-
tomer service over speed, giving
the right answers the first time
around rather than answering the
most calls per day. New Van-
couver employees are also trained
in such things as fare calculations
worldwide and how to process
prepaid tickets for visitors from
abroad, group bookings, tickets
delivered by mail, and more.

This approach will promote tke
airline’s efficiency as well as its
flexibility, especially when com-
bined with service improvements
tesulting from newly implemented
computer and telephone

Post hotel admitted to group

THE POST Hotel in Lake Louise
has announced its acceptance into
the world’s most prestigious hotel
group — Relais & Chateaux. A
voluntary organization founded in
France in 1954, Relais & Chateaux
is now comprised of 377 small
hotels and inns worldwide.

Membership in this exclusive
group is achieved by meeting the
highest international standards in
product, level of service, at-
mosphere and, of course, cuisine.
At this time, there are just eleven
Relais & Chateaux properties in
Canada with only two in western
Canada; the Post Hotel in Lake
Louise and Hastings House in the
Gulf Islands of British Columbia.

The Post Hotel is located in the

heart of Banff National Park, and
has 93 rooms, two cabins and a
separate conference lodge. Many
of the guest rooms have fireplaces
and whirlpool tubs and all have a
balcony or patio. Hote! facilities
also include an indoor pool, steam
room, whirlpool, iounge, pub and
space for small meetings and con-
ferences.

Perhaps the Hotel is best known
for its fine . xing room which has
received num..-:ous accolades from
Magazines such as: Gourmet, Es-
quire, Western Living and Where
to Eat in Canada. The dining
room is Icocated in the Post’s
charming original log lodge with
window tables looking out to
some of the most spectacular
peaks of the Canadian Rockies.

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(Easter) MONDAY, APRIL 1st/91 AT 1:00 PM SHARP

Viewing at 12 noon

technologies. These include a Luf-
thansa ‘‘first’’ worldwide. a direct
computer link from telephone
sales agents to the ticket printer in
the public sales office, allowing
fickets to be issued as soon as the
telephone agents feed the required
information into their terminals.

Other newly installed techno-
logy allows phone calls from
Calgary and Edmonton to be

forwarded automatically to the
Vancouver reservations centre at
no extra long-distance charge to
Lufthansa’s clients should the
airline’s Alberta agents be busy or
otherwise unavailable. The new
Vancouver reservations staff is
prepared to take care of Albertans
as well.

Vancouver has been a Lufthan-
sa destination since 1983. As a
result of the airline’s marketing
agreement with Canadian Airlines
International, the German carrier
also includes Calgary and Edmon-
ton in its worldwide network of
190 destinations in 82 countries.

“Our new Vancouver telephone
sales team is well attuned to the
needs of our passengers and our
industry partners in this market,”’
says von Haldenwang, ‘‘and I’m
confident we'll see a return on our
growing investment in Western
Canada before long.””

MONDAY-THURSDAY

Sunday, March 31, 1991 ~ North Shore News - 35

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