US' Call Center Performance Dropping Even or Better?

 
Old Jul 19, 2007, 1:33 pm
  #1  
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Join Date: Aug 2001
Location: Arizona USA
Programs: NetJets Marquis, Southwest Moo, Marriott Platinum
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US' Call Center Performance Dropping Even or Better?

I have to say that I hardly ever called HP, and the very few (less than 5) times I did it was a very good transaction.

I am not starting an HP vs East battle here, I have a feeling that the merger killed performance on each side. But I am getting ahead of myself....

Would you say it's worse, even or better?

Any real examples here would be interesting. As someone who has worked in call center operations and technology for 14 years, I have a feeling that there is zero quality control with US' call centers.

Here's a recent study that should be an eye opener for US: Report Warns of Outsourced Call Centers

I don't necessarily see outsourcing as causing service to drop, in fact some of those (I might venture to say a majority) highly ranked catalog centers are outsourced. The difference is the time and money invested with either the outsourcing company or the call center management team to convey the level of quality as well as the metrics for service level. My employer has several catalog customers where we rank in the high 90th percentile of customer satisfaction; the key is that our people feel that they are part of that company's team.
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Old Jul 19, 2007, 1:48 pm
  #2  
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Thumbs down I Vote Dropping

I've posted here of my wife's 40+ calls to US to book a single award flight to Oz for the three of us. Unbelievably poor service from the Mexican call center and NC. We had a few shining jewels based in Tempe, Reno and Winston Salem that finally got us where we needed to be.

This past Sunday my wife called to book a flight with the Juniper Annual Companion Cert. The first call was to NC and the agent ended up throwing her back into the queue, ala Mexican call center style. The second one was in NC and she may have well been speaking to someone in Manila and I don't mean a Spanish accent. She got the flight booked after a long time but had us spread across the plane even though I jumped in when my wife was at a point of getting ready to yell at her. I told her exactly what seats were open. IMHO she was dumber than a box of rocks. Finally I gave up and figured I would change it on line. I asked her for the confirmation number and she sighed out loud and made a comment of "I gotta go back in troo all dis stuff and find it." I hung up on her. I called back in 30 mins later and got a very professional and friendly CSR in Tempe who provided the confirmation number to me. I decided to change seating on line and didn't ask her to do it.

Surprise! The website didn't work.... I called in again and got Mexico City where the CSR told me that only Preferred could have the seats I wanted. DUH! My and my wife's profiles say Gold. I point that out to him and finally get the seats.
  1. Does US realize how much this cost them?
  2. Does US realize how honked off my wife and I are when we have to go through this BS?
  3. Does US realize their broken website is costing them operational dollars right up to the point where the customer walks off for life?

The answer to all three questions apparently is NO!

Last edited by KevAZ; Jul 19, 2007 at 7:32 pm Reason: Grammer - English, American or Dutch? I can't keep it straight!
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Old Jul 19, 2007, 3:23 pm
  #3  
 
Join Date: Aug 2005
Posts: 2,449
Kevin, if you dial the 1 800 2 FLY AWA and select 4, then 1 you will get someone from RNO or PHX Rez I'd say 99.9% of the time. I like call my Elite #, but every now and then I dial the HP # especially when it comes to 99$ companion certs.

Edited to say: I would love to try the UK line once, where warbo is located at. Does anyone know a way to get to the Liverpool center or is it just for Europe calls only(I have Skype so I could care less...)?
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Old Jul 19, 2007, 3:56 pm
  #4  
 
Join Date: Nov 2002
Location: San Francisco, CA
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just called the chairmans desk...they are even getting worse these days.
It was all I could do not to hang up on her when she gave me the "thats not my problem/job"
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Old Jul 19, 2007, 4:42 pm
  #5  
 
Join Date: Jun 2006
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I too have found that the Chairman's desk is no longer as helpful as they once were.

Of course, some of the employees will still go out of their way to be helpful, but even some of the good ones now respond that they're "no longer allowed to do that" for many common requests.
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Old Jul 19, 2007, 7:27 pm
  #6  
 
Join Date: Jan 2006
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Telephone Reservations
Charman's has gone downhill. I try NOT to call. I get better results from the online chat reps. The last time I called the CP line was to hold a reservation that I was purchasing with vouchers. When I got to the airport, the agents had to call the their Help Line to ticket it. The CP agent had not properly reserved it for voucher redemption.
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Old Jul 19, 2007, 7:52 pm
  #7  
 
Join Date: Jan 2007
Location: PHL
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I tried to call the SP line earlier this week, to see if my first class upgrade had cleared. For this trip, outbound was on a 737, and return was on a CRJ. I asked the agent about availability, and she insisted that the only upgrade available was on the CRJ, and that it would cost me 10k miles to get the upgrade. I finally convinced her that there wasn't a first class on that flight.
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