Archive for July, 2008

I recently read a vacation article in USAWeekend about the importance of leaving work behind while on vacation. The article reports that nearly 25% of American workers check email and voice mail while on vacation. This is something John and I are intimately familiar with. Some of our management members are tempted to call the office and answer emails while they are supposed to be enjoying a vacation. Out of respect to their vacation time, we often try to intercept their calls and scold them for calling in. We feel confident in doing this because we believe we have built responsible teams who are quite capable of handling issues without them for a few days. We travel a lot, so we see the ugly results of checking email and voicemail while on vacation. Our kids definitely notice when we are preoccupied with work and it ruins the atmosphere that a family vacation is supposed to instill. They can feel ignored and unimportant if work infringes on “their” time. We don’t like this for our own kids or other’s.
So, what is the solution.
1. Set expectations. We have found that if we expect the business to function without us, it usually does.
2. Start by telling clients and co-workers you are away and designate an alternate contact person. When we do this we are amazed at how empowered our staff becomes to handle everything.
3. Ask your spouse and children to remind you to detach and disconnect from work.
4. If you have to check email/voicemail set a specific time and then resume your vacation. We find that the hour after the kids go to bed is a good time to check in without disturbing the flow of the vacation. But remember not to let issues bleed into other times.

We don’t always practice what we preach, but we try very hard. We have left work totally behind and it is very liberating and healthy. The CEO of the Stress Institute reminds readers that “taking time for vacations and leisure is not luxury. It is necessity. The chronic stress of work can lead to emotional and physical illness.”
We’ll be celebrating our 15th wedding anniversary this fall. I can assure you that John will be leaving the laptop and cell phone behind (if he wants to make it to our 16th anniversary that is.)

-Tina Dowd

The Sundance Vacations customer service division is trained and ready to answer a wide variety of client questions about our product. We recently came across a more unique type of question from one of our customers.  The blogger from New Jersey questioned how Sundance Vacations can stay in business by offering such economical vacations.  He was happy with the price but expressed concern that if the company continued to offer this pricing structure we would become insolvent.  The exact words were “bankrupt.”

Not to worry.  We have a healthy profit margin.  Although our gross revenue and profit continue to grow each year we also control our costs in many ways. The really simple explanation that many customers will understand is that we own (and therefore control the price of) a lot of our own vacation inventory in many of the most popular vacation areas.  Over the past 17 years we have often taken profits and re-invested in the future of the company by purchasing resort real estate when it was smart to do so.   The current economic downturn is actually a positive event for Sundance Vacations who is ready to scoop up deals as prices fall on real estate nationwide.

We also protect customers through our fee structure.  How does a fee structure protect customers?

Well, because we don’t incur all of the vacation expenses upfront, you don’t pay all of the expenses upfront.  See one of our very first blog posts on this subject:  http://sundancevacations.typepad.com/sundance_vacations_corpor/2006/10/fees_facts.html

The fee structure guarantees that the company will always have a revenue stream to fulfill vacations.  Do you have a particular question about Sundance Vacations that you want answered?  Send it to pr@vacmail.com or simply reply with a comment to this post.

The Association of TeleServices International recently honored Sundance Vacations with the Call Center Award of Distinction. Sundance Vacations was recognized at ATSI’s 2008 annual conference held at the Hyatt Regency Hotel in St. Louis, MO.

The award of excellence is a ‘mystery shopper’ program that provides individual testing for quality assurance in customer service levels. After six months of testing, a panel of judges scored call-handling skills for “enhanced service” applications focusing attention on customer relation management (CRM), courtesy, etiquette, and the use of proper call techniques, as well as response time and accuracy, the cornerstones of the Call Management Industry.

“We congratulate Sundance Vacations for their achievements,” said ATSI President Allan Fromm. This is the second year Sundance has received this honorable award. Be sure to congratulate the marketing team on their hard work!

Among the awards Sundance Vacations have received, what awards means the most to you or to your office?