Growth and expansion are integral parts of the business strategy of Sundance Vacations, a wholesale vacation company headquartered in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania.
In keeping with this philosophy, Sundance Vacations recently opened its fifth marketing office. The expansive new office consists of 4,500-square-feet and is located at 600 Sanders Street in Scranton, Pennsylvania. Transforming the office space was a relatively easy task since the building formerly housed a call center.
At the helm of the new Scranton office are managers Jill Kotlowski and George Rizkalla, who are seasoned veterans when it comes to call centers. Rizkalla weill serve as the center’s day-shift manager and Kotlowski will be the night-shift manager. Because the Scranton office opened officially on Tuesday, April 15, Rizkalla and Kotlowski will share the day-shift managerial duties until the night-shift staff is in place.
As for experience, Kotlowski started with Sundance Vacations in 2006 as a telephone service representative (TSR), moving up to fill-in senior telephone representative. She continued to climb the ladder to become a quality assurance representative (QAR) before bring promoted to assistant manager in the QAR department.
Commenting on her long-time colleague at Sundance, Christina Allen, manager of the QAR and Senior TSR departmenty in Wilkes-Barre, said “I’m so proud of Jill and wish her the best of luck on her promotion. I know she will do an incredible job as one of our Scranton managers. I remember the day she started training as QAR manager and how eager she was to learn and make sure she did a great job. And that’s exactly what she did.”
Rizkalla comes packing with extensive experience. Sundance was able to hire him away from IMS in Scranton where he served as general manager. His background also made him an ideal candidate for Sundance’s Scranton office as he previously owned a call center.
The Scranton office opened officially on Tuesday, April 15, with a staff of 19 TSRs. “We had 150 applicants for the TSR jobs and the interviewing process was handled by Joe Molitoris, Sundance vice president of marketing; Denise Miller, assistant manager of marketing; George and me,” said Kotlowski. “We were able to hand-select the top candidates and narrow it down to 19.”
The core group of new TSRs hail from Lackawanna County, but others are from Luzerne County and as far away as the Poconos.
“We had training for the new TSRs on Monday and Tuesday (April 14-15) and we got the ball rolling by having the TSRs making calls as of Tuesday afternoon. We started getting up to speed on Wednesday and the first full day will be Thursday. We’re ready to start pulling in the big numbers like the other Sundance offices,” Kotlowski added.
Continuing, she said, “We have a great group of employees who have great attitudes and are ready to work and make our office number one in the future.”
In addition to the new Scranton office, Sundance’s other marketing offices are located in Wilkes-Barre, Hazleton, Shamokin and Tamaqua.
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