United PR

I thought you all would be interested to know that we will be bringing certain Customer Relations positions from India back to the U.S. We believe this will provide the right level of focus this function requires, and I know many of you rely on these employees for travel support. We will fill 165 positions in Chicago and Hawaii with employees who today handle mostly reservations, and in April will begin handling both reservations and customer relations. This move also enables us to preserve 165 jobs for our employees.

We recognize that those of you who email or write to us are more satisfied with our responses than via phone. Beginning in April, you may continue to email or write us when you want to discuss your travel experiences, while reservations and other “how to” support will still be available by phone. For those of you who are 1K and GS, virtually nothing will change with regards to the support you receive and how you communicate with United.

SFOtoORD

So, having more customer service staff in the US is a good thing! However, I'm not sure I understand the full implication of the bolded part of the comment above. Does that mean that most customers will not be able to conduct customer service requests over the phone? I think I'm missing something.

exbayern

Thank you...

I have nothing against ICC in general, but even as someone who has worked in India I find the quality of some of your agents not up to the required standards ie they are excellent at quoting script but not deviating from the norm.

My English may be near perfect, but my name defeats HAL, so you can imagine what it does to the ICC agents. And they cannot move past verifying my name and the pronunciation. Some days I feel like I am giving German lessons rather than conducting business.

Again, thank you UA for listening to your customers.

channa

Does this mean that the only way to interact with Customer Relations will be via email and there will no longer be phone customer service for non-1K/GS members?

MBS MillionMiler

As one of those unaffected 1Ks, I APPLAUD United on this decision...They were being too penny-wise-pound-foolish--I heard horror stories on here and first hand (non-status friends trying to get simple answers) about India. It had to have been killing United, and I'm glad they finally realized it.

The first good (of hopefully more) changes at United. ^

Lightman7

Nice to see this. If I read between the lines, I assume that it means reservations are down and you need to cut reservation staff. Its good to see UA retaining employees instead of layoffs.

I hope when business picks up it doesn't mean these people go back to reservations and these positions get outsourced again.

Thanks for the information.

ual744777sta

This is very good news!

mudba

My read is that this means 1P Reservations is going to start going to India as 165 jobs will no longer be doing reservations anymore.

United PR

Yes, this is correct. This streamlined approach enables us to carefully research your feedback and most importantly, respond thoughtfully with an e-mail, letter or phone call. We recognize that guests who email or write are most satisfied with their response. Additionally, some of our competitors and other companies, such as Disney, also use this method of obtaining customer feedback.

Bagels

No offense, United PR, but who's the idiot that decided to move the consumer relations department (for non-1K/GS) to India in the first place? Always a smart move to hand over your last line of defense/most important to people who don't comprehend English well and have likely never flown UA/been to America.

SFOtoORD

Personally I prefer email for customer feedback. However, it would have been nice if the change was a little clearer in the original post. One frustrating thing about United, is that there is this "read between the lines" aspect of every major announcement. We all have to deliver some tough messages, but I always find it easier to be clear about them.

kkjay77

Does this mean there will be no more form letters and they will actually read my feedback?

PanHam

Ah, so Barbara Higgins is behind this.

Truthfully, I just don't think much will change. Yes, it's important to have a good line of customer service reps, but, why doesn't UA try to fix their products on the ground and in the air? The hard and soft products from takeoff to touchdown are rife with issues. Cut the issues there, and reduce customer service complaints.

as219

Woah there, fella!

Let's see this for what it is: A good move. ^

fadeforward

Thanks for posting, United PR. I always appreciate hearing from you. If I understand this move, I think it will probably be a net plus for customer service for my <1K friends.