Life Without Power: Large NYC Agency Copes in the Dark
by Marilee CrockerIt is Wednesday evening, Halloween night in fact, and travel agency executive Kimberly Wilson Wetty is working in the dark from her home in Bronxville, N.Y. – for the third day running.
Wetty is co-president of Valerie Wilson Travel, whose 16 offices handle about $300 million in sales annually. The agency’s headquarter offices in Manhattan have been darkened since Sandy blew through on Monday.
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Some 130 staff and associate agents normally work in the firm’s main offices at 32nd St. and Park Ave. Four more of the agency’s New York area offices also lost power during the storm, including offices in Greenwich, Conn., and Purchase, N.Y.
“It’s been a long couple of days,” said Wetty.
Travel Market Report asked Wetty to share her agency’s story. Here’s what she said.
The dark zone
“Our headquarters office is in the zone that’s without power. I’ve got 30,000 square feet, and we are managing everything remotely.
“Our main phone system, which handles New York City, Greenwich, and Purchase, is transferring to an emergency system to service clients.
“But the tower for our New York number has just been turned off. If someone were to call my New York office now, they’d get a fast busy. Whereas if you call our Greenwich office, it’s perfect.”
Client services intact
“Thank God we have multiple offices. We’re still able to run reports of when clients are traveling. We are proactively calling clients.
“From a client service standpoint, our emergency action plan that we put in place is still very much working. Clients, to the best of our ability, are truly being serviced.
“We’ve utilized social media. We did a notice on Facebook about which offices are open and closed. We put it on our website.
“We’ve reached out to our corporate clients, to say, ‘We’re still functional. Here’s the number to call.’ We’re calling them, emailing them.”
Borrowing power from friends
“What’s incredible to see is the dedication of our team.
“We have employees who don’t have power who have found friends who do have power, so they can work remotely all day – sitting in someone else’s kitchen.
“We’ve gotten everybody hooked up remotely to Sabre Red. That allows them to issue tickets at home. We have a company policy where we don’t have employees work at home. But we’ve now made them functional where they can.
“We’re still doing executive management calls every four hours.”
Corporate travel affected most
“This isn’t really a busy time for leisure travelers. Fortunately the biggest disruption has been to corporate travelers.
“I think in many cases corporate travelers are a little more common sense. They recognize that this is a state of emergency.
“There’s a level of patience and respect; people are appreciative of the outreach that we’re doing.
“Business travelers are putting things on hold as much as possible. On the flip side, life goes on for the majority of the rest of country.”
Can’t access vacation files
“The hardest thing about the vacation travelers is that vacation is still very much of a file business. We actually maintain files on the trips – hard copies. But we don’t have access to our files because we can’t get into the offices. That’s the biggest hassle.
“Corporate is 99% is electronic, in Sabre, so you’re able to manage them remotely.
Powering up
“The good news is today two of my offices got power, so I’ve gone from five to three [without power]. At headquarters, we’re at the mercy of Con Ed.
“We have a team in place once the power is back up – the team going in. We know where everybody lives. If necessary we’ll carpool.
“The minute we have power, we will be flooded [with work]. Once we’re actually functional, the expectation is that we’ll be back to business as usual.
The challenge ahead
“It’s going to be that much harder because we’ll be short-staffed – not everybody can get in to the office.
“We’ll be bringing systems back up, coupled with it being the end of the month, so we’re trying to close [the books], get commissions paid. I don’t even have my bank records to know if money’s being transferred in.
“We’ve already made the decision, and all the staff knows, we will work all weekend.
“We are at the mercy of Con Ed. I listen to the mayor’s reports. I’m hopeful it’s by Friday.
“It’s amazing to think it could be a whole five days [without power].”
