Creating a Great Place to Work

and a Great Place to Call

Martin Hand
Vice President,
Reservations, Customer Care and Sales
Resources
 Overview

Continental Profile
It’s All About Quality
Creative Staffing
Rewards & Recognition

2
Continental Profile
 State of the Airline - 1994

10 presidents in 10 years
Last in all U.S. DOT metrics
 On-Time Performance, Bags, Customer
Complaints
Highest passenger
avoidance rating
Employees hated us
Stock was trading at
less than $4
On the way to
3rd bankruptcy

4
 State of the Contact Center - 1994

50%-60% turnover
Mandatory over-time for nine
months
Abandoned calls the norm
65 evaluation form questions
Absolutes and micromanaging
No customer voice
No employee voice
1:15 supervisor ratio
“Robo-Res”

5
 State of the Airline - 2006

$2.4 billion cash balance

Fortune Magazine’s
 “100 Best Companies to Work For” six consecutive years

Air Transport World’s

 “Airline of the Year” - 1996 & 2001

Training Magazine’s
 “Top 100 Training Organizations” 2001-2004

6
 State of the Contact Centers - 2006

No mandatory overtime in nine years

13 evaluation form questions
Empowered workforce
Measure and reward the right things
Customer is the boss
Employee voice and inclusion
1:40 Supervisor ratio

7
 State of the Contact Centers - 2006

Call Center of the Year 2003

 Call Center Magazine

Top 10 CRM Implementations 2002

 Aberdeen Group

Innovator of the Year 2003

 Witness Systems

Service Elite Award for Quality

Monitoring 2004
 CRM Magazine

Call Center of Excellence 2004

 BenchmarkPortal

8
 Create a culture
where employees
enjoy coming
to work.
Larry Kellner
Continental Airlines
Chairman & CEO

9
 Shaping the Vision - The Go Forward Plan

Fly to Fund the Make Reliability Working

Win Future a Reality Together

1995
Improve revenue Secure liquidity Become an airline Create environment
and deliver a profit for turnaround of preference of dignity and respect

2006
Above average Use our assets Deliver an industry Help employees build
returns in a to build leading product that Careers they enjoy
changed industry for the future is clean, safe every day
environment and reliable

10
 Contact Centers’ - Go Forward Plan

Fly to Fund the Make Reliability Working

Win Future a Reality Together

Run Contact Centers Produce Highly Help Employees Build

Generate Revenue Careers They Enjoy
Like A Business Satisfied Customers
Every Day

11
 Profile of Contact Centers

Three domestic and eight international

contact centers
2.5K+ agent workstations
4.0K+ Reservations agents
50M+ calls annually
 Airline reservations
 Frequent flyer program
 Third party customers

12
 Salt Lake City, Utah

658 agents
6:00AM - 12:00AM local
Functions
 General Sales (Domestic)
 International Sales
 Elite
 OnePass Partners
 Electronic Support Desk

13
 Tampa, Florida

900 agents
24 X 7
Functions
 General Sales (Domestic)
 International Sales
 Elite
 Support Desk (Help)
 Flight Recovery Center
 Queues

14
 North Houston Center, Houston, Texas

2,000 agents
24 X 7
76 special functions, including:
 General Sales (Domestic)
 International Sales
 Elite
 Support Desk (Help)
 Electronic Support Desk
 Customer Care
 OnePass Service Center
 Foreign Language Desk

15
 •Brussels,
•Brussels,Belgium
Belgium
•Tel
•TelAviv,
Aviv,Israel
Israel
•Guam
•Guam
•Tokyo,
•Tokyo,Japan
Japan
•Hong
•HongKong,
Kong,China
China

•Mexico
•MexicoCity,
City,MX
MX
•Monterrey,
•Monterrey,MX
MX
•Sao
•SaoPaulo,
Paulo,Brazil
Brazil

16
 Call Volume

Annual call volume

 50+M

Average handle time

 285 seconds

Average speed of answer

 20 seconds

17
 Automated Call Functions

Flight information
Continental Pass Line
InfoPass
eBalance
Annual call volume
 7.3M

18
 Staffing and Forecasting

Agent shift bids: three times per year

Seniority based
80% of staffing requirements are
created centrally
97% occupancy
#1 average speed of answer in the
airline industry

19
 Profile of Contact Centers

Full time
 50%
Part time
 50%
Average seniority
 12.2 years
Annual voluntary turnover (’06)
 2.2%
Agents with perfect
attendance
 47%

20
 Continental Philosophy

Hire the right people

Provide the best tools, training, technology and
resources for successful employees
Communicate expectations
Measure and hold accountable
Reward and motivate
Provide ongoing coaching and training
Empower employees
Management - get out of the way!

21
 Continental Culture

Create an
organization where
employees enjoy
coming to work!

22
It’s All About Quality
 Critical Success Factors

Link CSR measurements to

Go Forward Plan
Clearly understand
contact center vision
Involve stakeholders in
every step of the process
Listen to customers -
internal and external

24
 Key Result Areas

eCoach Quality Rating /

Customer Service Customer Feedback
Accuracy
Continental Revenue
Sales Sales Effectiveness (PSE)
Partner Revenue
Calls per Hour
Productivity Reliability
Accountability

25
 QA Responsibilities

Quality Specialist
 Quality monitoring
Supervisor to
agent ratio: 1:40
 Additional monitoring
 Mentoring
Managers
 Quality checks

26
 QA Responsibilities

QA Task Force
 Local consistency
 System program changes

Headquarters staff
 System quality checks
 Reports
 Overall trends
 System calibration

27
 Quality Monitoring Frequency

New Hires
 Five calls / one coaching session weekly

Probation and below target CSRs

 10 calls per month / two coaching sessions

On-target
 Five calls per month / one coaching session

Above-target
 Three calls per month / one coaching session

28
 Recording Calls

Witness eQuality Balance captures voice

and data
Four ways to capture calls
 Live monitor
 Randomizer
 Scheduler (all calls during block of time)
 Agent Initiated Monitoring (AIM)

29
 Customer Service

Measure what’s
important to customers
Key customer drivers
Train, reinforce and
expect superior customer
service

30
 Measure What’s Important to Customers

Newsflash: Customers don’t care if we

say, “Thanks for calling Continental.”
So we don’t measure it.
No more “absolutes!”
Results-oriented and big picture strategies.
 Honor individual styles that achieve positive results

No scripting.
 Promote best practices and success secrets from top agents

31
 Key Customer Drivers

1. Provide accurate information

2. Understand needs
3. Answer promptly
4. Provide friendly and courteous service
5. Provide assistance with finding
“The Best Deals”
6. Provide efficient service
7. Be responsive

32
 Customer Service (45 points possible)

Provides and documents accurate information

Provides courteous service
Provides Elite members with personalized
service
Uses Customer Care guidelines to
resolve problems
Satisfies DOT and CustomerFirst Commitments
Customer mishandling

33
 Example - Accurate Information

It’s all or nothing; partial information or 99%

of the information is not good enough
This “attribute” replaced 16 questions from
previous evaluation form
1. Quoted Minimum 2 Flight Schedules 9. Recapped Itinerary
2. Advised Complete Fare Rules 10. Assigned Seats
3. Documented Fare Rules 11. Documented Special Service Requests
4. Advised Correct Policies & Procedures 12. Booked / Rebooked Flights Correctly
5. Documented Correct Ticket-Time-Limit 13. Advised Correct Travel Documents
6. Documented Correct Credit Card # 14. Documented Travel Documents
7. Documented Correct Billing Address 15. Documented Citizenship
8. Documented Correct Phone Number 16. Documented Correct OnePass Number

34
 Sales (36 points possible)

Offers ticketing
Offers to create a reservation
Offers alternatives to
overcome objections
Promotes continental.com
check-in
Offers special promotions
 Avis/Budget
 Hotels.com

35
 Production (19 points possible)

Researches using available tools and

resources before contacting Support
(Help Desk)
Identifies customer needs
Demonstrates overall call efficiency

36
 Where Are All the Details?

Training
 New Hire
 Sellebration
 Ex$ellence
 Customer Care
 CustomerFirst
 QA

Definitions document
online

37
38
Creative Staffing
 Staffing Challenges - That Was Then…1994

Attrition spiraling upward due to:

 Lack of flexibility
 Poor schedules
 New job & better pay
 Benefits
 Lack of career path / development opportunities

Call centers located in cities with

abundance of call centers

40
 Staffing Challenges - That Was Then…1994

Hiring approval was generally received far

too late to beat the requirement curve
 Continually hiring and training
 Inexperienced workforce  loss of revenue

Lost time due to “illness” much greater

than planned

41
 Staffing in the Old Days

42
 Staffing in the Old Days

Constant battle to manage peaks

Frequent and often mandatory overtime
Mostly full-timers
Little or no authorized unpaid time off (AUTO)
Little or no recurrent training

43
 New Approach to Staffing

1996 - Total paradigm shift

Changed approach to
staffing
 Managed down, not up
 Reduced overtime
 Increased part-time employees
 Introduced creative staffing
 Maximized AUTO

44
 Staff to Peak Approach

45
 Advanced AUTO

Long-range staffing
forecast indicates surplus
Awarded by function, end
time and seniority
Provides agents more
flexibility for vacation time
and other time off

46
 Daily AUTO

Pre and post arrival

Based on real-time
operational needs
Overstaffed / volume
under forecast

47
 Results and Benefits - This is Now!

Recruiting costs
Trickle hiring vs. mass hiring
Almost eliminated advertising costs
Freed up management
More flexibility and time to deal with
real-time operational and people issues
Reduced premium overtime expenses
More experienced employees = sales

48
 But Wait, There’s More

Reduced attrition
 Less than 5% annually

Reduced lost time due to illness

Satisfied, happy employees
 Fortune’s 100 Best Companies to Work For 6 consecutive
years

Opened up the opportunity to have our

“cost center” produce new incremental
revenue and more flexibility programs

49
 Incremental Revenue Opportunities

3rd party call handling

Management consulting
services
Training development
and delivery Ex$ellence

Contact center
conferences and
workshops

50
 Creative Staffing Conclusions

Flexibility to the operation

Flexibility to employees
Opportunities for employee programs
 TOPs
 3rd party assignments
 Director days off
 Trade a day with management
 AUTO

51
Rewards and Recognition
 Perfect Attendance Program

We measure and reward

employee’s reliability.
Every company has an
attendance program…
but how about a Ford
Explorer just for coming to
work?

53
 Perfect Attendance Program

For every six months of

perfect attendance -
name goes into a
drawing.
Ford Explorer drawing
once a year (eight
winners; one winner from
all call centers combined.)
Larry personally calls
winners.
Big celebration.

54
 Perfect Attendance Program

129 Ford Explorers

awarded since
1996.
50% of employees
had perfect
attendance in 2005.

55
 Super Agent Program

Recognize overall above target performance:

 Sales (Revenue and PSE)
 Customer Service (Quality scores)
 Productivity (Calls per hour)
 Reliability (Attendance points)

Agent must be above/on target in all areas

for previous three months
 No below target ratings

Re-qualify each month

56
 Super Agent Perks

Unlimited 15 minute shift flexes

One day of AUTO per bid
Trade-a-day with management
Additional empowerment and training
Special projects

57
 Incentive Programs

Recognize and reward sales performance

Continental sales incentive program
 Incentive dollars for ticketed reservations
 Bonus for top performers
 Paid monthly

Partner sales incentive program

 Money for transfer to car and hotel partners
 Fun perks and special promotions offered periodically
 Paid monthly

58
 On-Time Bonus Program

Recognize and reward on-time performance

and teamwork
Introduced in 1995 -- $65 for every employee*
when Continental ranked in the top five for on-
time by DOT
Raised the bar over the years
Current program:
 $100 to every employee* when Continental ranks #1 -or-
 $100 to every employee* if Continental achieves minimum 80%
average for entire quarter

59 *manager and below

 Talent Optimization Program (TOPs)

Must be a Super Agent

Program highlights
 Temporary projects and assignments offered from other divisions
throughout the company
 Hire Super Agents vs. outside temps
 Assignments: 30 days – six months

Program benefits
 Learning and development opportunity for employees
 Exposure to other areas of the company
 Variety of work
 Potential promotional opportunities

60
 Communication
Employee meetings

Videos Continental Quarterly

61
 Success Secrets

Communication
 Benefits
 Consequences
 How to win

Buy-in -- inclusion vs. exclusion

Win-win strategy
Measure performance
Track results
Reward positive behaviors and results
Celebrate success

62
 Results

Sales
 Reservations revenue increased 14% to 19% (2000-2006)
 Increased ticket sales YOY
 24% increase YOY in car transfers

Quality Assurance Results*

 50% increase YOY in calls evaluated
 100% increase YOY in coaching time

Productivity
 1:40 Supervisor to agent ratio

*Based on Initial Results 2000 vs. 1999

63
 Results

Customer Service
 Reduced calls to Support (6% in 2001)
• 4.8% in 2002
• 3.8% in 2003/04/05/06
 No DOT or CustomerFirst fines

Employee satisfaction
 Less than 5% annual turnover
 It’s a great place to work
 Outstanding employee feedback

64
 It’s Worth It!

65
 Thank you
Creating a Great Place to Work
and a Great Place to Call

Martin Hand
Vice President,
Reservations, Customer Care and Sales
Resources