Res A White Elephant

[ITRADE]

You gotta remember that as more and more people become comfortable with the internet and web booking you're going to see the need for fewer res agents.

According to Southwest, their call volume is down 20% or so in the past couple years. As such, they shut three reservation centers and colsolidated from 9 call centers to 6.

There will ALWAYS be a need for some person-to-person contact so the call center will never totally disappear.

 

[reznc]

Any US company that took its call centres "offshore" would be extremely stupid at this time, given all the negative publicity being generated and alleged fraud occuring to Americans "offshore" and there being no way to legally charge the theft of credit card information overseas.

Nothing can in reality stop mgmt from outsourcing to students at $6.50 per hour, however studies will prove that the turnover is incredibly high, and it goes back to have an untrained work force, young people tend to not want to hear people shout and rant at them about how they can get it cheaper elsewhere, where are my bags etc ad nauseum.

Even compared to WN we have downsized to accomodate the web page. Remember how many res centres there was 2 years ago, and how many there are now. The call volume has certainly dropped but so have the agents handling them, and continue to do so, as the mgmt are being much more stricter on work rules and often selfinterpretation of work rules, so the attrition rate is higher than it ever has been.

 

[tadjr]

I have a question and concern about more consolidation of the rez offices into 1 center. What happens if there is an event that forces that center to close? Then what does US do until it gets repaired (fire, storm, mold ) I seem to remember a tornado hitting or coming close to the offices in INT one year. What would US do if the entire rez office were wiped out since we would be down to one?

 

[Bradly71]

I have a question and concern about more consolidation of the rez offices into 1 center. What happens if there is an event that forces that center to close? Then what does US do until it gets repaired (fire, storm, mold ) I seem to remember a tornado hitting or coming close to the offices in INT one year. What would US do if the entire rez office were wiped out since we would be down to one?

Aren't there still res offices in Germany and the UK that they could switch the calls too? I know I went to "Impressions of Mediocrity" with a guy who came from the FRA res office a few years ago.

 

[Schatzee]

Management should really take a look at working from home.

 

[BoeingBoy]

Perhaps the title of this thread should have read "Res Centers A White Elephant". So far, no carrier has eliminated the need for a reservations function (at least no carrier that sells directly to the public).

I've got one question for the res folks out of curiosity - would it be worth making less per hour if you could work from home? I know....how much less? There's where I have no idea.

Jim

 

[SpinDoc]

That is an outstanding idea. Studies have been done, and the general consensus is that people that work from home are more productive and happier.

Do a search on google to find the case studies. It is really a mystery to me why this hasn't become mainstream yet.

Logic does not play into corporate decision making.
The fear with home based reservations personnel
comes down to two things: the company would not
have their thumb on the agent at all times and the
number of managers and supervisors would
decrease significantly if every employee worked at
home. US is not unique in this area. Every company
has managers that spend more time trying to hold
on to their kingdom than they do on actually producing
the work that is needed. Everyone in management from
the V.P. on down could lose their job as a result of
the efficiencies gained by home based employees.
It's a classic case of PYA which more often than not
wins out over the best method.

 

[reznc]

There is only 1 res centre overseas, Liverpool.

Personally I would hate to work at home, my family would see it as a right to interupt me with "important" things. They are teenagers and in their eyes it is important, NOW.

I also go to work to interact with other people. Defintiely not my idea of a fun work environment, being stuck in your home taking phone calls nonstop from alot of folks who are moaning about the holdtime, and the inability to just quickly ask your neighbour the answer to a query rather than you having to call a CSD person and also be on hold.