Airlines scamble to add phone staff
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Rising call volumes and longer telephone waits are forcing three big airlines to recall some of the telephone reservations agents they laid off months ago.
It''s really frustrating, says Michael Sommer, a Jacksonville consultant who waited 84 minutes two weeks ago on a special US Airways reservations phone line, and 70 minutes last week when he called back to rebook.
http://www.usatoday.com/money/biztravel/20...escenters_x.htm
It''s really frustrating, says Michael Sommer, a Jacksonville consultant who waited 84 minutes two weeks ago on a special US Airways reservations phone line, and 70 minutes last week when he called back to rebook.
http://www.usatoday.com/money/biztravel/20...escenters_x.htm
The new agents are still training to cope with customers' waits, which run as long as 20 minutes, says spokesman David Castelveter. He says Sommer's experience would have been "an anomaly."
I guess the anomaly is happening quite a lot then. I had a gentleman come to the counter last week who tried to book his award online. For some reason (?) he couldnt get it to work on us.com so he came to the airport thinking I could help since he had also called rez and was told over an hour wait time. I have to call someone to get the miles pulled from the account and the certificate issued anyway, but I did it for him. I booked the reservation and called to get it taken care of and the wait time was advised at 77 minutes. I sent the pax on his way while on hold (and yes I continued to work the line all the time on hold since there were only 4 of us at the counter) until someone answered and helped set it up for ticketing. Only took about 45 mins though. I guess I got off easy time wise. It would be funny if it weren't so pathetic.
I guess the anomaly is happening quite a lot then. I had a gentleman come to the counter last week who tried to book his award online. For some reason (?) he couldnt get it to work on us.com so he came to the airport thinking I could help since he had also called rez and was told over an hour wait time. I have to call someone to get the miles pulled from the account and the certificate issued anyway, but I did it for him. I booked the reservation and called to get it taken care of and the wait time was advised at 77 minutes. I sent the pax on his way while on hold (and yes I continued to work the line all the time on hold since there were only 4 of us at the counter) until someone answered and helped set it up for ticketing. Only took about 45 mins though. I guess I got off easy time wise. It would be funny if it weren't so pathetic.
Severed-N-Happy
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- Dec 21, 2002
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On 7/23/2003 2:31:48 PM A&P Tech wrote:
Lets see.....20 minutes for US or a 1 minute with CO. The person who is running the reservation's department should be fired.
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You're kidding, right?On 7/23/2003 2:31:48 PM A&P Tech wrote:
Lets see.....20 minutes for US or a 1 minute with CO. The person who is running the reservation's department should be fired.
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K.C. and her Sunshine band will never get fired,..they'll just grow old, gray, and decrepid..... like the band
Lets see.....20 minutes for US or a 1 minute with CO. The person who is running the reservation''s department should be fired.
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That would happen at a company where they have good managment, but here at Usairways that person will be promoted to "special projects"!!!
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That would happen at a company where they have good managment, but here at Usairways that person will be promoted to "special projects"!!!
I work in res in INT and the long wait is certainly not an anomaly. Let me give you an example of how it goes when you call reservations. There is a prompt for someone holding a reservation and would like to confirm, and of course those calls are top priority. Then there is a prompt for DM calls,(guess what priority they have), and there are service calls, flifo, seat assignments, etc. and then there is a prompt for reissues. There are agents who are trained for all of the above, but if the call comes in the wrong prompt, we have to transfer to the correct prompt, even though we are trained to do the work. Then there are other agents who are not reissue trained and may not ever be who only take service calls or sales calls. For some reason, the time cannot be found to train these agents to do all of the above. My calls on hold light stays on from 9am to 530pm with over 160 to 200 calls on hold all day. Granted since I am trained for all, that may be why I have so many calls on hold constantly and those with sales and service calls may not have many on hold.
What kind of service is this? If I can handle all of the above why do I have to make the psgr wait even longer to give us their business. It makes no sense. As one psgr told me today, "So I have to give you my credit card to be able to talk to a person?" That psgr may already have a reservation, but since we already have their money, they are no longer important. This is a big morale buster for many of us who take the brunt of this stupid system, all day, every day. Well, we are only doing what we are told we have to do, and we have no input as to how it could be better. I'll say it again, if I am trained to do all of the calls, why do I have to transfer and cause ill will?
I'm sure the ones who make these stupid rules have no clue, as to what kind of ill will it is causing, or else they could care less. We'll, we (res agents) do care, but we have to "do our job" the way we are told, or suffer the consequences when we are monitored.
Well, thanks for letting me rant, and thanks ATO for the job you do when our internet psgrs or call psgrs have to come to the airport to get it done. I know sometimes you wish you could transfer them.
I also want to thank our loyal psgrs and cockroaches for hanging in there with us because you know that we, the frontline, do care!
What kind of service is this? If I can handle all of the above why do I have to make the psgr wait even longer to give us their business. It makes no sense. As one psgr told me today, "So I have to give you my credit card to be able to talk to a person?" That psgr may already have a reservation, but since we already have their money, they are no longer important. This is a big morale buster for many of us who take the brunt of this stupid system, all day, every day. Well, we are only doing what we are told we have to do, and we have no input as to how it could be better. I'll say it again, if I am trained to do all of the calls, why do I have to transfer and cause ill will?
I'm sure the ones who make these stupid rules have no clue, as to what kind of ill will it is causing, or else they could care less. We'll, we (res agents) do care, but we have to "do our job" the way we are told, or suffer the consequences when we are monitored.
Well, thanks for letting me rant, and thanks ATO for the job you do when our internet psgrs or call psgrs have to come to the airport to get it done. I know sometimes you wish you could transfer them.
I also want to thank our loyal psgrs and cockroaches for hanging in there with us because you know that we, the frontline, do care!
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On 7/23/2003 2:31:48 PM A&P Tech wrote:
Lets see.....20 minutes for US or a 1 minute with CO. The person who is running the reservation''s department should be fired.
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That would happen at a company where they have good managment, but here at Usairways that person will be promoted to "special projects"!!!On 7/23/2003 2:31:48 PM A&P Tech wrote:
Lets see.....20 minutes for US or a 1 minute with CO. The person who is running the reservation''s department should be fired.
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Amen!! The upper management over reservations need to be replaced. There has been almost constant overtime offered since before Dec. And they still closed Orlando?! What logic they use is definitely skewed.
How he can call it an " anomaly" is a joke...
I guess that is the kind of "spin" they want to
put on it. Wouldn''t it be more honest to say...
we are hesitant to bring back more agents until we
see some profits??? For myself, if I have to wait
more than fifteen minutes, I''ll try something or
someone else...
So many of my calls are web related....people have
so much trouble booking and finding their res...
if they made the web site easier I wouldn''t have
to spend half hour a day explaining how to find
their res info. If they would take off the logons
and endless passwords....just let anyone with the
record locator go in and get the thing...
The other problem is people calling back and
saying ...I upgraded to first class and my itinerary
reads coach...somehow this glitch has proven impossible
or just no one has fixed it in four months...
all these inefficiencies just lead to more
time consuming calls explaining why our software
is broken.
I guess that is the kind of "spin" they want to
put on it. Wouldn''t it be more honest to say...
we are hesitant to bring back more agents until we
see some profits??? For myself, if I have to wait
more than fifteen minutes, I''ll try something or
someone else...
So many of my calls are web related....people have
so much trouble booking and finding their res...
if they made the web site easier I wouldn''t have
to spend half hour a day explaining how to find
their res info. If they would take off the logons
and endless passwords....just let anyone with the
record locator go in and get the thing...
The other problem is people calling back and
saying ...I upgraded to first class and my itinerary
reads coach...somehow this glitch has proven impossible
or just no one has fixed it in four months...
all these inefficiencies just lead to more
time consuming calls explaining why our software
is broken.
deltawatch
Veteran
- Aug 20, 2002
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Don’t worry guys Delta already found their solution, they’ve outsourced there baggage call center to a company in India ($2.00 an hour). It’s just a matter of time until all the airlines outsource their general sales. Let’s see they can hire about 15,000 agents for the same cost! Wait time 2 seconds!
First of all glad to see the media finally picking up on a probelm that has existed for quite some time after 9/11 and glad to see that my faith in CCY remains the same. Now there should be no doubt in why when the VPs make their visiting rounds I will not waste my time. On a positive note the new VRU allows the true sales calls to take priority but does nothing to address the actual call volume.
networking
Advanced
- Sep 1, 2002
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Lets see....Someone in India trying to locate a lost bag half a world a way. I think this would definately lead to greater frustration. Dell Computers has a call center in India..
When I get that one I have a hard time understanding their accent and I usually get transfered to someone in the states. If the company does this all I can say is "Penny wise and pound foolish".
When I get that one I have a hard time understanding their accent and I usually get transfered to someone in the states. If the company does this all I can say is "Penny wise and pound foolish".
Hello Newman
Senior
- Aug 23, 2002
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- 0
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On 7/24/2003 7:07:14 AM deltawatch wrote:
Don’t worry guys Delta already found their solution, they’ve outsourced there baggage call center to a company in India ($2.00 an hour). It’s just a matter of time until all the airlines outsource their general sales. Let’s see they can hire about 15,000 agents for the same cost! Wait time 2 seconds!
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I recently had to call Microsoft for help with aOn 7/24/2003 7:07:14 AM deltawatch wrote:
Don’t worry guys Delta already found their solution, they’ve outsourced there baggage call center to a company in India ($2.00 an hour). It’s just a matter of time until all the airlines outsource their general sales. Let’s see they can hire about 15,000 agents for the same cost! Wait time 2 seconds!
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PC problem. I noticed the three people I spoke to were all Indians which did not come as a shock, but later I learned I was talking to New Delhi and
the remarkable thing was the clarity of the call.
Like they were in the next room. And they were the
most helpful people I've ever encountered. It's
only a matter of time until other airlines follow
suit.
Seatacus
Veteran
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I recently had to call Microsoft for help with a
PC problem. I noticed the three people I spoke to were all Indians which did not come as a shock, but later I learned I was talking to New Delhi and
the remarkable thing was the clarity of the call.
Like they were in the next room. And they were the
most helpful people I've ever encountered. It's
only a matter of time until other airlines follow
suit.
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Call clarity is one thing, how about trying to understand those people. Nothing against them but trying to understand what they are saying with their heavy accent is very frustrating. Perhaps my hearing is not a good as it was after all these years around jet engines.
I recently had to call Microsoft for help with a
PC problem. I noticed the three people I spoke to were all Indians which did not come as a shock, but later I learned I was talking to New Delhi and
the remarkable thing was the clarity of the call.
Like they were in the next room. And they were the
most helpful people I've ever encountered. It's
only a matter of time until other airlines follow
suit.
----------------
Call clarity is one thing, how about trying to understand those people. Nothing against them but trying to understand what they are saying with their heavy accent is very frustrating. Perhaps my hearing is not a good as it was after all these years around jet engines.
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