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THE CON TRÂU TIMESIssue 5 - May - 2012

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Table of ContentsPublisher

Hr Department

DesignerBui Minh Tan

Staff WritersThuy Nguyen

Ray PettsKenneth Joergensen

Hang DoThuy Ho

Huyen PhuongLinh Bui

EditorBev TaylorRay Petts

PhotographyHoang Hai

Customers’s contributionPeter and Edie Stam

Brigid Houlihan

Staff of the monthTravel Events1. Tour Leader Training 2. Awareness Before Change3. United We Win4. New tour desk at Somerset Chancellor5. iVIVU Training Course Feedback6. Let’s VIVU

Guest feedbackVacancies in HanoiTips7. Regain Your FocusBirthday and anniversaries8.List of June birthdays

Credits

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Staff of the month 1. MS. Doan Lan PHuonG – VET TEaM

Phuong has secured a big school group from Singapore Polytechnic School of Business with total revenue of $75K and profit margin over

50%. Phuong ensured thorough preparation with local suppliers and com-

munity project then escorted the group to Mekong Delta for more than 10 days. The trip was a success and all passengers had a great time with

glowing feedback.She spreads her energy and enthusiasm. Recently Phuong spent her

weekend at Binh Luc Orphanage and delivered Buffalo Tours’ donation.

2. Tran THi THanH Loan – uK TEaMHer level of customer service is outstanding, going above and beyond.

These last few months have involved a very demanding large group, which she handled professionally and patiently, always with a smile. She

is very supportive of the whole AU team and a pleasure for us to work with.

Also her turnaround times, itinerary suggestions and design were instrumental in ‘selling’ to this big group. As a result, Educational travel have already requested 2 new quotes. The value equating to approxi-

mately $50-$60k.

3. PHaM THi DiEn – VET TEaMDien always gets positive feedback from Sarah (BT Sydney) thanks to her swift response and outstanding customer services. She took the

initiative to design exciting programme for Inspired Adventure, includ-ing trekking and volunteering time. She does not hesitate to spend

extra time to call guide/Ops to get their support to finish some difficult itineraries. This is the reason why the entire proposal . Dien made always

meets or over the expectation of the clients.Dien is willing to take care of customized package tour for Kumuka

though she is very busy since she has a great interest in learning new things to get more experiences with high end clients. So far, all quotes

for Kumuka have been done instantly and the response is thorough.Recently, Dien has received 02 great feedbacks, the first one is from the

Teacher Family Group from Educational Travel which potentially bring us some new businesses. The second one is from one of Inspired Adven-ture Groups in Cambodia thanks to her attention to details in preparing

and operating the trip.

People are our most valuable resource!Nominate someone you think deserves recognition – someone who

truly shines!

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Buffalo Tours Vietnam recently conducted a 5 week training in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City with the main purpose being to increase the existing skills and knowledge of our current guides and tour leaders. The program was

put together by the our operations teams and lead by Bob Withers, an experienced tour leader who for the last decade has run tours throughout Indochina and China for large companies such as Imaginative Travel-lers and Tucan Travel.

Tour LeaderTrainin

g

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The same training is conducted separately in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City which consists of 3 days of theory based training where staff learn more about customer service, the importance of conducting a detailed pre tour briefing, dealing with conflict and unexpected situations, how to create trip notes, commentary topics to cover, how to understand and meet clients expecta-tions, what not to do whilst on tour, dealing with crisis and emergency situations and how to conduct risk assessments.

The teams then hit the road for several days and have the opportunity to put into practice what they learnt in the classroom as the guides and leaders must totally plan and operate the tour whilst constantly being as-sessed, watched and supported by Bob.

All staff must successfully complete the training before they can be accepted as a full time guide or tour leader. This training follows on from a newly revised and improved recruitment process which now requires all applicants in Hanoi to conduct a 30minute walking tour of the old quarter as part of their interview.

As our tour leaders and guides are Ambassadors of Buffalo Tours, this and future training programs will greatly assist our guides and tour leaders to be able to offer a more professional service overall and exceed our clients expectations.

“ By Ray Petts – GM”

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Last Saturday and Sunday, our preferred team attended a 2 day motivational and training Program as know as ABC (Awareness Before Change) at Hanoi Academy .

This program was conducted by renowned trainer, Mr. Tran Viet Hung from SALT Consultants and Train-ing Center (Self-Awareness, Leadership & Teamwork). This program focuses on creating individual awareness to help one become a better individual. Throughout this intensive training, participants were guided on how they could improve on certain core areas, namely how they could be more spiritually strong, intellectu-ally sound, emotionally stable and physically fit; all of

which are ingredients required in the recipe to be a happy and successful person.

When I heard Mr. Hung - instructor talking about the days we live in this world, surely all of us started to look back and think about all the days we passed. The average life expectancy of people in Vietnam is 70 corresponding to 25,550 days. How old are you now? If you’re like me - 25 years old, we have used up 9125 days and left with 11,925 days. I was really shocked by the fact, I have lived for more than one third of my life, what did I do? What did I achieve? What am I going to do in the remaining days? - It’s ambitious, the goal in life but most of us have accidentally forgotten it.

ABC Program with SALTAwareness Before Change

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And for forgetting it so we did not have the will, the patience to do it.

ABC course has helped us realize: who am I? Where am I? Where I want to go? How do I get there? ABC helps us set goals and objectives in life, our encouragement to get there.

“Do not live as if you have 1000 years to live” - take advantage of the rest of your day to know your every moment in this life. Every morning when you wake up, bear in mind:

“Today, a new day has begun.

I have full use of today the way I want. Will I live today as another normal day or make it remarkable for me and for the others?

Everything I do today is important, because I’ve charged one day in my life to do them. When the next day comes, today will be gone forever.

Hope that I will not regret the price I paid for today. “ The training course success not only by the content of

the program very rewarding, but also by the partici-pants were willing to change to grow. This is an op-portunity for Buffalo members know each other better, more united, and together towards one side: develop Buffalo Tours to become the World lead Tour Operator.

“By Phuong Thuy – Marketing Dept”

ABC Program with SALT

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United winwe

Being with Buffalo Tours for 7 years now but I have to admit that my best fun day ever were our Team Building day out on May 19th. It’s a knockout fun day, full of active activities and

challenge that push us together to work out as member of interdependent teams. Forget about our ego, and fully enjoy the great feel-ing of being together outdoors among fresh nature.

More than 60 people from Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City, Chau Doc, Luang Prabang, Siem Reap... were gathered and sweep out Son Tinh Camp, a perfect team building location that 1 hour drive from Hanoi. Randomly we divided to 3 teams that chose for themselves threatening names as The Tornado ( Orange team, renamed as CƠM MỐC in Vietnamese), The Fighting Bulls ( Red Team, renamed as Bò Thiến) and the Green team as Cucumbers ( renamed as Cu Lạnh, ew!).

The day started with some warm up activities of which provided us a chance to start “touch-ing” each other and feel closer, it’s funny but true that you never hold your co-worker hand in the office and you don’t push him around or lift someone up. But in the field, playing game

together, touching is also a part of trust building, make us more human being and erase the barrier of office space. You started regarding your co-worker as friends rather than people who you only see in the parking lot and be copy in group email.

8 games had been carried out during the day included physical activity games and tricky games that request a bit of strategy and brain work. Need not to say Buffalo Tours staffs have more brain than muscle but we played them all well. Leading up on all games was the Green team, they passed all the challenge as fastest and as easiest. I did a quick interview with their team leader to find out the

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secret of success. Ms.Linh said she also surprised with the team success but there are few tricks you could all learn when working in a team, there were: Boost up the team spirit from the very start – Quickly find out each individual strength and use that person as the lead in different area of work, Mr. Kien who is strong and well strategy could push the whole team up in physical challenge while Mrs. Ha Lo the one with logi-cal thoughts in mind help the team out of number zig zac game in a flash, Mr. Tuan from Chau Doc has a good memory and he just bailed everyone out of true or false game quickly. Finally in all for one, one for all game, the whole team just need to working all together, support and encourage each other. After

2 first games the team already went float and things became so easy, Green team won 8 out of 8 games, terrific result, big cheers for good team work!!! The Orange and Red team com-plete with high effort and willing to win, and they all enjoyed great time together with team members, shared the sweat and the heat.

The day was also filled up with common activi-ties on ground like football, eating ( a lots), karaoke... few individuals found their soul mate and started a new “relationship”... No one want to leave the camp when it came to end, but when we left, we left with dirty clothes and happy faces.

Around the coffee table on the next Monday morning, many guys and girls confessed that they felt in love with the CEO “again”. Mr. Kien is a wonderful leader and a fair play team member on the ground. Neither less to say, he inspired us to work hard and play harder.If there is another Team building day in near future, make sure you are IN!

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On 08 may, BTA opened its 8th Point of Sales at Somerset Chancellor Court in Dis-trict 1, a premium residence with Serviced

Apartments and Offices. Conveniently located near the American and French Consulates, the Somerset Chancellor Court welcomes short and long term residents. The Tour Desk will be princi-pally manned by Ms Le, with the support of the other BTA Saigon Travel Consultants. We are open from 9h30 to 18h30, 7 days per week.

Phone: 08 3822 9402Fax: 08 3822 9403Email: chancellor@buffalotours.comSkype: chancellor_tourdesk

“ By Ho Thuy- PR & Marketing Executive – BTA SG”

New tour desk at somerset chancellorcourt in Ho Chi Minh city.

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W e spent 2 days to attend the “Successful Transition to Supervi-

sor course”, provided by Thien Minh Group and conducted by

Professor Mr. Nguyen The My, an expert trainer who have had more than 10 years

in this field.

We found that this course is very useful and informative to someone who is ready to take

up the new role on his /her career. With specific case-study and as well as lectures was given, the

course this time giving you most contents and knowledge to become a good and trust-worthy

leaders in your team.

Beside these points, this course also provided the knowledge which is very practical and feasible.

We are more than happy to take up and apply this knowledge to our current role and contribute

better to the company.

Last, I would like to take this opportunity to thank to all the organizers who have had put in lots of

effort to have this organized successfully to bring us more knowledge and become more profes-

sional.

“By Huyen Phuong – iVIVU”

iVIVU Training Course

feedback

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Hello from iVIVU! For those that have missed us so far, we are the online hotel booking website, joint venture between Thien Minh Group and Wotif Group (Australia). We share the 2nd floor with Buffalo Tours in Ma May office and in Nguyen Dinh Chieu office, but haven’t welcomed many visitors from Buffalo Tours and other

sister brands :-( One day, we hope to be as cool as our bigger brother and role model Buffalo Tours. Honestly though, it can be a bit stressful growing up in a family of successful brands like Thien Minh - please don’t tell Kien. Like all young ones, we enjoy hanging out, running around, traveling to new places, hunting for treasure (or in our case, hotels), and looking at things with big dreams and enthusiasm. We also grow up fast – we’re currently at 23 staff and counting, with more guys joining the team (haha, big advantage!). So watch for this new kid on the block, and we hope to meet you all soooooon!

In case you still don’t remember us, we are sending along some pics of our office and our team on a sales trip to Nha Trang recently. Find us at www.facebook.com/ivivu too ;-)

“By Hang Do- GM – iVIVU.com”

Let’s VIVU

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Feedback on what our staff members have been doingHi Buffalo Tours,

I took the above tour with your company from April 14th to May 3rd this year. I must say the tour surpassed my expectations on many fronts.

I have to give a special word of commendation to your Cambodian guide, whose name is Vuttha. He is a terriffic guide in every way. My room mate was very ill and when I had to call Vuttha at 4.30am he came immediately and couldn’t have been more helpful. He took us to the hospital where my friend was seen to promptly and was quickly on the way to recovery. For the following few days Vuttha always made sure she was comfortable point-ing out toilets in every location we visited. Without his help and assurance she never would have gotten to see the Killing Fields, Choeung Ek or the Royal Palace in Phnom Penh. All this without in any way neglecting the enjoyment or needs of our fellow travellers.

I myself left a Kindle reader behind in the hotel room in Saigon and he went to great efforts to help in having this returned to me. I’ll hopefully have it next month through one of your London agents.

I have taken many trips with different companies and have never felt the inclination before to write in praise of a specific guide but I just had to comment in this case. I hope he will be employed by your company for many years to come as you certainly won’t find a more knowledgeable or pleasant guide.

Hopefully I’ll get to take more trips with you. My experience on this tour would certainly encourage me to do so. Keep up the good work.

Kind Regards,Brigid Houlihan.

Hello Eve,

I just wanted to send you an email to let you know that we have returned home. Our time that we spend with Buffalo Tours, the drivers, the tour guides was great. We were treated very well, and always were asked if we were comfortable and whether we liked the choice that they were making for us. We would recommend your tour company to anyone who would like to travel Thailand.

Thailand is beautiful, and we feel that we have not seen everything. We hope to be back one day. Thanks for all your help. Peter and Edie Stam

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Regain Your Focus Multitasking may speed

you through your to-do list, but it also makes you more likely to make mistakes and

less likely to retain information. Here are three ways to focus:

• Think good thoughts. Positive emo-tions improve the brain’s executive function and encourage creative and strategic thinking. Improve your emotional balance by actively thinking about things that make you happy.

•Ban distractions. Be aware of what steals your attention. When disrupted, make a conscious choice to return to the task at hand.

•Leave things behind. When you turn to a new task, part of your brain is still thinking about the last one. Before starting something new, go for a walk, climb stairs, or do some deep breath-ing to clear your head.

Harvard Business Review

1. iBDE in the Tiger team (Hanoi) 012. Sales Manager – BTa (Hanoi) 013. Sale & reservation Executive – uK agent (Hanoi) 01 4. Travel consultant_BTa (SGn) 01 For detail job description, please visit our website at: http://www.buffalotours.com/about-us/careers.html

Please send us email to: nhanh@buffalotours.com if you would like to apply or if you know any qualified candidates. Thank you.

Vacancies in Vietnam

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Le Thi Quyennaruemon SongsanDo Thi Hien ThanhTran Thi HaiKhim PhallaChipseng THor Luu Trung Kiennguyen Thi MaiPham Thanh Hainguyen Do Huyen TrangMattie Scholtsnguyen Thi TrangTruong Thi Huong Lannguyen Le Quynh DaoTran Hoang Xuan LamTran Thi Bich Thuynguyen Thu HuongTrinh Thi Phuong Huyenalecki Lorien Jonathan

2-Jun2-Jun5-Jun5-Jun9-Jun9-Jun13-Jun13-Jun13-Jun14-Jun15-Jun16-Jun20-Jun21-Jun21-Jun24-Jun25-Jun28-Jun30-Jun

Travel ConsultantAccountantAirport Rep.AccountantReservation Executive Volunteer Project CoordinatorPAAirport Rep.Tour guideTravel ConsultantAsst. Operations ManagerGerman salesAccountantTravel ConsultantFinance officerVET - Team LeaderHR ExecutiveCoE ‘s assistantBrand Manager

Birthdays:

NEW BORN BUFFALO

Birthdays Anniversaries&

nguyen Manh HungTran nam Trungnguyen Thi Trangnguyen Van DinhHoang Van Giangnguyen Duc Hanhnguyen Van Van Duannguyen Bui Dinh ThuanGraham Harperittipol PuttasiriTran Thi Thanh Thaonguyen Trung Cong

04 years in service05 years in service02 years in service05 years in service05 years in service05 years in service04 years in service04 years in service03 years in service03 years in service01 years in service03 years in service

ITGerman Team LeaderGerman salesTour guideTour guideTour guideTour guideTour guideVET Business DevelopmentSales ConsultantTicketing ManagerCTO- deputy General director

Anniversaries:

Congratulation to Mrs. Ngo Thu Trang – GIT Executive – on the birth of your handsome baby on 11 May, 2012. His name is Dinh Kien Tran and nick name is “Loa”.

Congratulation to Mrs. Mai Huyen Thuong – Fi-nance Senior – TM Group on the birth of your beati-ful baby on 11 May, 2012. Her name is Ngoc Mai and nick name is “Đĩa”.