/24-7PressRelease/ - HORSHAM, PA, September 07, 2006 - LRA Worldwide, Inc., a leading Customer Experience Management consulting firm, announced Jeffrey Gurtman would be joining the firm as a Senior Consultant in its Quality Assurance and Mystery Shopping practice. Gurtman joins LRA with years of experience developing and executing quality assurance and mystery shopping programs - as well as the technology to support them - for some of the leading brands in hospitality, including Four Seasons, Intercontinental Hotel Group and Marriott Hotels and Resorts. Most recently, Gurtman lent his expertise to the Travel Channel as a host of its undercover travel show, Travel Spies. At LRA, Gurtman will manage a number of ongoing client projects, as well as apply his IT expertise in a variety of ways to support LRA's world-class quality assurance programs.
Prior to joining LRA, Gurtman was running his own mystery shopping strategy and IT consultancy in New York City, Beaked Productions, where he worked primarily with small hospitality companies. While running his consultancy, Gurtman gained a level of celebrity as one of the hosts of Travel Spies, where he and his co-hosts would visit various hospitality destinations undercover and rate the experience on a variety of factors. Gurtman served as the customer service guru. The show appeared on the Travel Channel last television season.
Previously, he served as the Vice President of Business Development for Coyle Hospitality Group, where he managed client projects, executed sales and marketing campaigns and developed several database and internet applications. Gurtman also worked for Host Marriott Corporation as an analyst, helping form strategy and perform financial analysis for new property acquisitions and real estate investments.
"It's very rare to find someone with Jeff's diverse capabilities who also has a strong foundation in the hospitality industry," said John Roberto, Executive Vice President of LRA Worldwide and Director of the firm's Quality Assurance practice. "His television work further speaks to his stature within the industry. Jeff will not only excel in serving his direct client accounts, but will help strengthen our entire practice with his IT knowledge and his applications for the QA industry."
LRA offers Quality Assurance services either as a stand-alone offering or as an integrated part of an overall Customer Experience Management consulting project, where LRA might be facilitating several different activities simultaneously in order to help a client assess, design, implement and sustain its vision of the optimal customer experience. LRA customizes its QA programs to specific client needs, providing innovative quality assurance, brand compliance, site inspection, audit and mystery shopping programs throughout the world.
LRA's Quality Assurance client base ranges from some of the most renowned brands in lodging, such as W Hotels, Hyatt Hotels and Westin Hotels & Resorts, to giants in sports (Troon Golf, the PGA TOUR), Conference Centers (ARAMARK Harrison Lodging), the National Park Service (Yosemite National Park, Kennedy Space Center), Gaming (Hard Rock, Churchill Downs) and Travel (The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey).
"The opportunity to join a dynamic, growing company such as LRA was too appealing to pass up," Gurtman explained. "I think LRA's use of quality assurance and mystery shopping programs as a diagnostic tool to help clients identify customer experience deficiencies and use that knowledge to drive change in how they interact with their customers is the future of this industry."
Gurtman received his B.S. from the Cornell University School of Hotel Administration (Ithaca, NY); he is earning ongoing credits in Interior Design from the Corcoran College of Art and Design (Washington, DC). Gurtman is a North Caldwell, NJ native; he currently resides in the Old City neighborhood of Philadelphia, PA.
About LRA Worldwide, Inc.
LRA Worldwide, Inc., is a leading consulting, organizational development and research company that specializes in Customer Experience Management (CEM). LRA helps companies and brands design and deliver the optimal customer experience across all key touch points using an integrated suite of services that measure and improve service quality, customer satisfaction, employee performance, loyalty, customer advocacy and profitability. LRA specializes in "operationalizing the brand" - turning brand promise and customer strategy into operational reality. LRA's tactical CEM practice areas include Customer Experience Strategy Design, Standards Development & Content Management, Organizational Development & Training, Customer and Employee Research and Quality Assurance & Mystery Shopping; these are either deployed together in a strategic manner to continually monitor and improve the customer experience or deployed individually to address a specific client tactical need.
LRA's clients include some of the world's leading companies and brands in the hospitality industry and beyond, including Starwood Hotels & Resorts, Hard Rock, the PGA TOUR, Albertsons Supermarkets, the NBA and MGM MIRAGE. For more information, visit the company's Web site at http://www.LRAworldwide.com.
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