 1995 Spring ACTE Quarterly: Commission Cap Controversy | ACTE and ASQC Join Forces SERVICE QUALITY INITIATIVE
ACTE has just joined forces with the American Society for Quality Control (ASQC) to establish a joint sales force to identify and address service standards in the corporate travel industry. The task force was formed following the pioneering efforts of Andre Jenkins, director of quality for A. Jenkins & Associates. Two years ago, he devised a five-step blueprint by which his corporate clients in the San Francisco Bay Area could evaluate the service performance of their travel providers. Jenkins, along with ACTE members Steve Bush of CAE Electronics, Hanna Murphy of Siemens Corp. and Jack Islin of Citicorp Diners Club, immediately saw wider applications for this performance model-and that was the development of an overall quality service standard for the entire travel management industry. "It's long been needed in the corporate travel world," said Jack Islin. "It's hard to believe, but until now there has been very little effort to define service expectations and develop some kind of mechanism to audit and adjust service accordingly. We're very excited that ACTE has seen the value of the quality standards project and taken stewardship of it. We're also very pleased that an association with the reputation of ASQC has agreed to work with us." The role of ASQC ultimately will be to provide a "cadre of industry- specific `evaluators' who will come to a consensus on service requirements, and then evaluate a service provider's compliance to the standards," said Mark Crumly, past chair of ASQC. The standards, he added, will be consistent with those of ISO 9000 and the Malcolm Baldrige Awards. Jenkins' model consist of a five-step closed loop: first, to define, clearly and objectively, what expectations suppliers and buyers have; second, to train service providers to meet these expectations; third, to frequently audit the service to determine whether it is acceptable to the customer; fourth, to take corrective actions when necessary; and last, to review whether the corrected actions pass muster. "Then the cycle begins anew, " he said. Siemens Corp. is already beta-testing the standard with one office of its corporate travel agency, Carlson Wagonlit, Jenkins said. "By June or July, with a total of four implementations in place, we should have a good working model." Founded in 1946, ASQC is a not-for-profit association that provides information on the development, promotion, and application of quality strategies and techniques. For information on the project and the task force, call Jack Islin at 312-380-5778 or Andre Jenkins 415-949-1910. AQ
1995 Spring ACTE Quarterly: Commission Cap Controversy | ACTE and ASQC Join Forces
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