Manager Customer Service

Richard Gertler , CTA

**** ******* ****

Wheaton, Maryland 20902-3764

Phone: Cell 301-***-****

Fax: 202-***-****; e-mail: *********@*****.***

SSN XXX-XX-1775

Objective

My objective is to become associated with a stable, progressive organization where innovative ideas, positive attitude, loyalty and dedication are values that are cultivated and rewarded. My goal is to participate in a team environment where my customer service skills, academic education, training, coaching and extensive managerial experience can be realized. The ideal position will offer long term career growth with a challenging opportunity for future advancement. I am self-motivated with strong organizational, supervisory, and customer service skills. I am a U.S. citizen.

Employment History

01/25/2010 – Present, Trainer and Customer Support Specialist

3102 Omega Office Park, Fairfax, VA 22031: 703-***-****

Salary 52500; Supervisor: Gian Dilawari, President; Minimum 45 hours per week

GDS: Apollo, Sabre, Amadeus

I create and conduct online sales demonstrations for our prospective travel agency customers and remain in constant contact following through the sales process, online setup, software testing and final software release. Following the software release to every customer, I conduct two live, online web training sessions, one for managers and supervisors and one for sales associates. I attend national conferences and participate in trade shows and product demonstrations on behalf of my company. I spend several hours each day offering technical support and customer service for our customers. You may contact this employer.

10/24/2009 –01/22/2010, Senior Retail Agent, AAA Mid-Atlantic

2730 University Boulevard, Suite 102, Wheaton, MD 20902; 301-***-****

Salary 41,500; Supervisor: Susan Douglas, Retail Office Manager; Minimum 40 hours per week

GDS: Apollo

I accepted this position due to a reduction in force and elimination of my previous position.

I utilized relationship selling to aid members and clients in maximizing membership benefits and plan domestic and international travel. I served members/clients by selling various travel products. A concentration on preferred vendor relationships was required. I counseled members concerning travel requests, offering updated information on the most current State Department travel restrictions, passport, visa and flight restrictions. I sold and promoted travel accessories from the office boutique. I met or exceeded established production goals. I handled refunds, customer inquiries and complaints. You may contact this employer.

04/2007 – 10/2009, Retail Sales Specialist, AAA Mid-Atlantic

2730 University Boulevard, Suite 102, Wheaton, MD 20902; 301-***-****

Salary 46,500; Supervisor: Kathleen Stinebaugh, Retail Sales Manager; Minimum 40 hours per week

GDS Apollo

I assessed associate skills and identified programs or techniques to improve soft skills or technical skills. I worked with Retail Office Managers (ROM) to develop action plans for individuals and provide training and coaching directly or indirectly through other areas as needed. I served as the primary resource to ensure training of office staff in multiple business lines (travel, auto travel, insurance, membership, products & merchandising, and financial services); included training of AAA Mid-Atlantic processing systems and accounting procedures in conjunction with dedicated company resources. I monitored the associates’ ability to comprehend and apply training to job functions. As needed, I administered in classroom training. I assisted Retail Sales Managers (RSM) with the coordination of training for associates to fully support all marketing events occurring within the retail environment. I was accountable for motivating and working with assigned office staff to meet individual performance expectations. I promoted effective cross-selling for all AAA Mid-Atlantic products and services by expanding associate knowledge of the functions and benefits of the products. I facilitated with training and support of new programs and software products to ensure the staff becomes proficient. I coordinated office support from the training department to ensure product, selling, service, and technology training is delivered as appropriate. You may contact this employer.

01/29/2007- 04/13/2007, Ticketing Coordinator, GTT-Grand Travel & Tours, Inc.

2230 Gallows Rd, Suite 380, Dunn Loring, VA 22027; 703-***-****

Salary 45000; Supervisor: Nabil Hamid; Minimum 50 hours per week

GDS: Sabre

I was asked to join this international travel agency to coordinate the reservations and ticketing departments. GTT is an international travel agency and consolidator focusing on the Middle East and Africa. I have created a streamlined process of reservations, ticketing and shipping of travel documents and have created GDS keys to help keep the process focused. I had also been assigned the duty of processing accounting data within TravCom (travel accounting software) and running corporate reports and ARC reporting. You may contact this employer.

7/05/2006-01/28/2007, Visa Consultant, CIBT Visa Service (World Bank Visa Office)

1451 Dolley Madison Boulevard, Suite300, McLean, Virginia 22101; 703-***-****

Salary: 32000; Supervisor: Dee Howard; Minimum 40 hours per week

GDS: Amadeus

My responsibilities as a visa consultant required focus and attention to detail. I researched international, domestic and local regulations related to international and domestic travel for nationals, citizens and aliens. I monitored and evaluated updates and changes to federal regulations and international entry policies of other countries. I evaluated applications for renewals of passports, Laissez Passer, and new international travel visas. The requirements associated with travel are restrictive and the guidelines change periodically as a result of global events. I was responsible for ensuring that regulations, which were currently applicable in all countries, were properly reflected in the documents being processed. I interacted personally with individuals and created a rapport with consulate representatives. I projected travel trends and created reports and matrices for presentation, both written and oral and identified strategies and procedures. Each visa is processed on an individual basis and has its own criteria. You may contact this employer.

05/04/2004-10/19/06, Licensed Real Estate Salesperson, Long & Foster Realtors/Exit Realty

Salary: Commissions; Minimum 40 hours per week

Following successful completion basic training and licensing course, I was associated with Long & Foster Realtors, Inc. for two years and re-associated with Exit Realty. During this period, I have participated in real estate transactions involving sales, purchases, investments and rentals throughout the Maryland and Washington DC Metropolitan area.

09/2004-03/2007, Home Based Travel Consultant, 1-800-TRAVLER, LLC

Salary: Commissions: LLC was dissolved by 3/31/2007; Minimum 40 hours per week

GDS: Amadeus

As a part-time, home-based consultant, I worked as an advisor for business and leisure customers whose requirements include local and long distance travel. Working through a “Host Agency” in Irvine, California, I designed and developed creative advertising and marketing strategies based on demographics, destinations and whimsy. Many of these creative strategies are used in print media as well as websites. I supported three independent agents through Windows Millennium, and XP, Microsoft Outlook, Excel, and Amadeus GDS from my home office and from remote locations.

06/2002-11/2005, Office Manager, Research Travel, Inc.

1803 Research Boulevard, Suite LL1, Rockville, MD 20850; 301-***-****

Salary: 42000, Supervisor: Ellen Karpman, Owner; Minimum 40 hours per week

GDS: Sabre (Corporate Travel), Amadeus (Leisure Travel)

As office manager for this privately held agency, I worked as a consultant for corporate clients and leisure travel customers. During my tenure, I implemented a new program of cost savings through productivity-based initiatives. This program was significant in helping the company remain independent through periods when travel and tourism was sluggish. I scheduled conferences for corporations and tours for leisure group travel sometimes up to 50 participants. You may contact this employer.

12/17/2001-6/07/2002, Corporate Travel Manager / Cruise Centre Manager (temporary); Vacation.com

1650 King Street, Suite 450, Alexandria, VA 22314; 703-***-****

Salary: 45000, Supervisor: Brenda Elliott, CFO; Minimum 40 hours per week

GDS: Amadeus

As the temporary Corporate Travel Manager and CruiseCentre Manager with Vacation.com, the nations largest Travel Agency Consortium with upwards of 9000 members, I re-launched the group cruise wholesale department. I separated the cruise department from the membership support department to create a venue for our members to book discounted and highly commissionable “group” cruises and vacations for their individual customers. The re-vamped administration of this department took control of booking and financial data and assured a quality product was offered. The corporate travel management was for internal business and leisure travel and reconciliation of expense reports for business development managers. You may contact this employer.

12/11/2000-12/14/2001, Reservations Manager, Youth for Understanding International Exchange

6400 Goldsboro Road, Suite100, Bethesda, MD 20817; 240-***-****

Salary: 45000, Supervisor; Ian Henderson; Minimum 40 hours per week

GDS: Apollo, Sabre

My initial responsibilities as Administrative District Coordinator required constant communication with high level management as well as district, regional and foreign national administrators. My responsibilities increased when I was promoted to Reservations Manager in 2001. Under extremely time-sensitive processes, I determined and set in place the “group space” with vendors using Galileo Group Manager to ensure and guarantee all reservations and tickets were completed in a timely manner. As the on-call manager, I was responsible for necessary last minute changes of reservations as well as any other transfers of students or staff members, insuring compliance with State Department regulations and corporate guidance. The organization filed bankruptcy and re-organized as YFU-USA. You may contact this employer.

10/04/1999-12/08/2000, Senior Agent, SatoTravel

511 Shaw Road, Sterling, VA 20166; 703-***-****

Salary: 37000, Supervisor: Michael Pope, Manager-Groups or Elizabeth Carver; Minimum 40 hours per week

GDS: Worldspan, Apollo, Sabre

(SatoTravel is now a Navigant International Company)

I concurrently worked at this position and at Your Travel Agent of Beltsville.

As Senior Agent for Sato Travel, I independently ran call center’s 3M business travelers incentive department. I was responsible for financial control of receivables and disbursements and I designed an incentive benefits program for the 3M Corporation. You may contact this employer.

09/1982-07/2001, President & Manager, Your Travel Agent of Beltsville, Inc.

10440 Baltimore Avenue, Beltsville, MD 20705; 301-***-****

Salary: 160**-*****; Minimum 40 hours per week

GDS: SyatemOne, Amadeus

As President of this energetic agency, I was responsible for day-to-day operations, financial reporting, collections, bank deposits, payroll and accounts payable, marketing, advertising and the budget and business plan development. By continually interpreting travel trends, I formulated funding opportunities for positive budget execution. I developed procedures and guidance for my staff of employees and outside sales agents. As federal regulations were updated, I made sure the staff was kept abreast. While away from the office I supported the staff, through remote communications, with exceptional technical advice and assistance. I kept abreast of all international travel requirements such as travel documents, vaccinations, visas, and passports. I continually researched and interpreted policies of domestic as well as international travel rules and restrictions and State Department alerts. I coordinated and implemented policies based on federal policies as well as foreign travel policies. I worked extensively with corporate travel as well as leisure travelers and incentive and affinity groups. In August 2001, I merged the agency into another full service travel agency.

Education

1976, AA Degree, Secondary Education/Computer Sciences/Psychology,

Prince George’s Community College

Specialty Training

2009, Certified Travel Associate

The Travel Institute

2009, Time Management Training

The Travel Institute

2009, Leadership Training (consisting of : Essential skills of Leadership, Essential Skills of Communicating, Delegating, Developing Performance Goals and Standards, Providing Performance Feedback and Effective Discipline)

Vital Learning Corporation/AAA

2009, Effective Presentation Training

Vital Learning Corporation/AAA

2009, Diversity Training, Valuing Others

AAA University

2009, Ethics in the Workplace

AAA University

1983, SystemOne® Computer Reservations System

Eastern Airlines Training Center, Atlanta, Georgia

1981, Sabre® Computer Reservation System

American Airlines Training Facility, Arlington, Texas

1979, Domestic Airline Tariff

Trans World Academy, Overland Park, Kansas

1979, International Airline Tariff, Pricing and Ticketing

Pan American World Airways Training Center, Miami, Florida

1977, Basic Data Processing

CS/TA Computer Training Center, Greenbelt, Maryland

Skills

Hardware: I have built, upgraded and repaired Windows Based PC’s.

Programming Languages: Basic, FORTRAN.

Software Applications: AS/400, MSOffice Professional (Word, PowerPoint, Publisher, Excel, Access) WordPerfect 12, Quicken, MSMoney, TurboTax, PayWindow (payroll), TRAMS (Travel management system), MSPhoto Editor, MSFrontPage, Adobe Suite (Illustrator, In-Design, Acrobat, Photoshop, ImageReady), Macromedia Dreamweaver.

Specialized Applications: Amadeus/SystemOne - 25years; Apollo/Galileo - 8years; Sabre - 4years; Worldspan - 1year; ClarifyCRM; Avaya Phone Resources; Membership Processing System; BPA Telephone Monitoring; NICE Telephone Monitoring System.

Affiliations

IGLTA (International Gay & Lesbian Travel Association), TAG (Travel Alternatives Group), Human Rights Campaign

Travel

Extensive worldwide travel to include: the Americas, Caribbean, Australia/Oceania (Australia and New Zealand), Europe, Asia (China, Hong Kong, Thailand, Singapore, Indonesia, Japan and Tibet) and Israel.

Contact this candidate