The Up-And-Coming Airline
5
(far left) Paul Wyatt,
manager of the Nasli^
ville office, and Sue
Jessup, resewations
agent: (above left] Agent
Elain Dalton: (at left)
Kenny Scarboro. super
visor of reservations
agents.
Nashville celebrates 1st anniversary
At 6 a.m., April 1, 1980, Nash
ville's reservations office opened
for business. Ten people on the
first shift sat nervously at their
stations, each awaiting that first
phone caJl, wondering if he or she
was prepared to handle the job.
This month Nashville is cele
brating its first anniversaiy and
its agents aren't nervous any
more. With over two million calls
behind them (an average of one
every twelve seconds), the 135
people in reservations are an expe
rienced group, handling 25 per
cent of the reservation calls Pied
mont receives.
"One of the main reasons Pied
mont opened a second reserva
tions office is the savings in
telephone line costs that can be
realized,” Paul Wyatt, manager of
the new facility, said.
“A thorough study, headed by
Don Shanks (Customer Relations),
was made of several cities and
Nashville was chosen because of
its central location in the western
part of our system. We looked at
other factors such as the grade of
service we could receive from the
telephone company, the cost of
leasing the building, and other
overall expenses. It was deter
mined that by 1985 our Nashville
office would save Piedmont
S800.000 in telephone line costs
alone and at the rate we’re going,
€
we may even exceed that."
The Nashville office is located at
322 Knapp Boulevard near the
airport and only 10 miles from
Opiyland and recording studios
known world wide. Telephones are
manned seven days a week from 6
а.m. to midnight. After midnight,
calls are diverted to CRO in Win-
ston-Salem. Nashville handles gen
eral sales calls from 11 cities —
Louisville, l^exington, Cincinnati,
Chicago, Knoxville, Dallas, Mem
phis, Houston, Denver, Nashville,
and Dayton. They also answer all
general sales calls, except from
North Carolina, on Piedmont's
WATTS line, which covers the
entire Continental United States.
“Normally, we receive about
б.500 to 7,000 calls a day,” Wyatt
said. "March 9 was our peak day
when we exceeded all expectations
by answering 8,071 calls. July was
the highest month of our first
year with over 175,000 calls.”
employees transferred
Wyatt also celebrates his 20th
anniversary with Piedmont this
month. He Joined the Company on
April 1, 1961, in Norfolk where "I
did everything. Those were the
days when you would sell a ticket,
then run out and load the bags,
and finally signal the pilot prior to
takeoff.” He transferred to Win-
ston-Salem in 1970 and worked in
the old reservations center which
was located above what is now the
General Aviation hangar.
Wyatt, along with 25 other em
ployees from the CRO in Winston-
John Elrod, assistant manager of
reservations, administration and stajf
services
Mary Stegall, reservations agent
Salem, transferred to Nashville in
early 1980 to set up the new
office. Two people who came with
him are Carolyn Matthews, assis
tant manager of reservation sales,
and John Elrod, assistant manag
er of reservations, administration
and staff services. In May, Mat
thews will mark her 15th year
with Piedmont and Elrod, his
eighth.
success due to many
"Eveiyone got into the act,"
Wyatt explained. “Keith Douglass,
Nashville's station manager, pro
vided us with ground transporta
tion and information on flights.
Bill Hanson (CRO/INT) designed
the facility, and Don Tedder
(CRO/INT) handled much of the
paperwork. Grant Clark (CRO/INT)
put us on computer. Ray Welch
and Nancy Green (Personnel, INT)
handled the hiring, and Lew Horn
and Janice Foster (CRO/INT),
training. And, of course, people
from Winston-Salem like Walt
Ryczek (CRO) and Don Shanks
(Customer Relations) helped get
things off the ground.
“Everything went like clockwork.
Things seemed to mesh for our
April 1 target date.”
Others who helped NRO get
started are Peg Baltes (CRO) and
Freida Whitley, Gaiy Blackburn,
Helen Temples, Gail Jones, and
Elaine Dalton, all transfers to
NRO.
Now the Nashville office is pre
paring for its first spurt of growth.
Twenty-nine more people are be
ing trained as reservations agents,
and additional equipment is being
installed for their use.
“Soon we hope to pul in 10 to
13 new WATTS lines plus public
ize those lines in more cities,"
Wyatt said. "For example, we're
listed in only two phone directo
ries in Kentucky now. By the end
of the year, we'll be in 40."
Nashville is also finding that
January and February, normally
slow months, have been just as
busy for them as other months of
the year, “partly due to Hopscotch,
our hottest item,” Elrod said. "Our
boardings are up considerably and
the phones are constantly ring
ing."
By taking Piedmont’s Hopscotch
Fare, passengers can save up to 50
percent on a round-trip ticket by
making one or more stops or a
connection in selected markets.
"We've had Hopscotch for a long
time but no one took notice," said
Mary Kost, Nashville's city sales
manager. “Convenience and speed
took precedence over cost. Now,
with the economy like it is and
the increases that have had to be
made in tickets because of the
cost of fuel. Hopscotch has really
become attractive to business tra
velers and vacationers alike."
W^att attributes much of the
Nashville office's success to its
small size. "We've been able to deal
with problems face to face. We've
met the challenges put before us
from the very beginning," he said.
For brand new people, our em
ployees have done very well. In
fact, we think we're right in there
with CRO in Winston-Salem and
we're not going to lag behind."
Careline is alive and well in
Nashville.
When a call or complimentary
letter is received about an agent,
it doesn't go unnoticed. The per
son’s supervisor writes the
agent a note, then presents the
note and a flag bearing the
words “I'm a people pleaser" to
the agent at his/her desk. The
flag is flown for a month.
“We can’t keep enough flags in
stock," said Carolyn Matthews,
assistant manager of reserva
tions sales. "We average about
10 each month and can't manu
facture them fast enough."
Last summer, Careline spon
sored a picnic for the office per
sonnel. More recently, Careline
conducted a general survey to
find out how employees feel
about the Company. The results
have been good.