Case Studies

About Blue Ribbon Travel

Rak Taneja started out with a stand in JFK airport.  He provided information on hotels and customer inquiries to travel related questions.  The journey proceeded to opening his first travel office in 1975 Whitestone NY.  The business continued to evolve and grow.  In 2013 they proceeded with opening other locations across New York City and Long Island.  Rohit Khanna joined five years ago as executive vice president assuming much of the interoffice dimension required for the business.

Blue Ribbon and Compu-Phone

Blue Ribbon awarded Compu-Phone their annual service and maintenance agreements to support their Toshiba system at the Whitestone headquarters.  Because of his experience with Compu-Phone’s support procedures and team, Rak chose Compu-Phone as their preferred vendor when it came to equipping his new sites with phones.  There was a great level of comfort working with a company that had a loyal staff that speaks highly of their management, seeing familiar faces coming back to service the account and knowing how their system was setup.

He wisely chose Voice over IP for the first location in Levittown as it would allow for seamless connectivity between sites as new sites were added.

Vendors Vs Partners

In 2013 Blue Ribbon hired Rohit Khanna to manage operations.  The vendor/client relationship almost immediately progressed to that of Partners and Collaborators.  Having similar cultures and goals, it was easy to collaborate on many ventures outside of just the phone systems.  Sales and marketing became a common topic of conversation, with each one sharing ideas, successes and learning from each other’s failures as well.

“We’re in the people business.  Travel is just a side thing” and “Referral Generating Service” are mottos both companies strive for and an ideology shared by both.  We learn from each other how to pivot our services to bring more value to our clients and recognize their needs in relation to what we can both provide. 

Collaboration notwithstanding, the primary focus still remains exceptional service to all clients.  Quality of service is so ingrained in our culture that when a Blue Ribbon staff member mentioned to Rohit that she did not receive a response from Compu-Phone for a ticket she opened, his immediate response was “It can’t be”.  Indeed it did turn out that the ticket response ended up in junk and was missed.

Tools for Growth

As Blue Ribbon has expanded, they have come to utilize many tools provided by Compu-Phone’s VoIP platform.  Voicemail to email notifications with attached wav files allows staff to stay on top of customer requests at all times from wherever they are.  The Mobile App, which twins each individual phone is also heavily used for remote accessibility and traveling personnel.  Staff can always be reached at their extension regardless of whether they are sitting at their desk phone.

It is a mutual insight that understanding the tools available and how to use them for maximum benefit is invaluable to the running of a business.  It goes way beyond price!  When nickels and dimes are all that is considered when purchasing travel or phones, much is being left by the wayside that can’t be appreciated.  What you don’t know you don’t know is often what puts a company in a downwards trend that is not easily repairable.  Hence part of both companies’ objectives is client education. 

Where Do We Go From Here?

 As Blue Ribbon continues to expand, the skyline is seeing changes.  As with many other industries, Rohit sees a shift from Real estate to an OnLine services.  He believes that providing services on line will better utilize his staff’s time and translate into more targeted offerings for his client base.

With a growth mindset, Blue Ribbon is slated to keep expanding and provide real value to their clients looking to travel the world.