One of the most common complaints I get from airline customers is, “I had to talk to India” — meaning that when they phoned a carrier, they were connected to an outsourced call center in a place like India or the Philippines. But Virgin America, which began selling tickets this morning and is expected to take off next month, is promising a break from the past. All of its phone agents will all be “home grown,” according to a representative.
Virgin America, like a handful of other carriers, will use a network of home-based agents scattered across the country. The project will be managed by a Miramar, Fla., company called Arise, which specializes in what’s called “homeshoring.”
“This puts Virgin America on the cutting edge of customer service options,” said Karen Seaman, an Arise spokeswoman. “They don’t need to staff an old-fashioned call center and can easily add more agents at the drop of a dime if customer demand soars at certain times. In the end, this will help offer better service to its customers as they anticipate their flights.”
It is far too early to say whether Virgin America will offer better customer service through its call centers than, say, Southwest (which often picks up the phone before the second ring). I’m almost certain that passengers will prefer this option over those offered by this year’s other big startup, Skybus, which doesn’t even accept phone calls.
I’ve cobbled together a cheat sheet for Virgin America this morning. If its outsourced “homeshored” call center doesn’t do what it’s supposed to (and honestly, I hope it works out) then at least you have a few other options.
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{ 9 comments… read them below or add one }
I know others disagree, but I have no problem with the Indian call centers. That they can’t help you is more often the fact that the airlines do not give them the tools or authority to help you. It has nothing to do with geographic location.
Patrick is correct: without the right tools, a customer service representative cannot be effective. I believe Virgin Atlantic already utilises “homeshoring” when you call the US number for booking flights. (Some of the reps I have spoken with have told me that they work from home.) These homeshored reps can only perform basic booking functions and answer general inquiries. They are not empowered to really assist the traveler. They are cut off from direct contact with supervisors or others who can help. They often make errors, and there seems to be little oversight to help catch and fix these errors.
Don’t get me wrong — solving the language barrier will be a great thing. Only yesterday I did speak with an Indian Virgin Atlantic rep, and it was frustrating, to say the least. I still don’t think she understood me. But homeshoring is not an answer to solving typical customer service ills. If anything, it may simply cause more frustrations for travelers just to save money for Virgin.
Thank you Virgin America!
Yes, thank you Virgin America! I’ll take an actual English-speaking housewife in Iowa over a Hinglish- or Chinglish-speaking whoever in wherever any day.
Part of the problem with the ICC is the fact that they aren’t that familiar with American geography. My favorite example of this is the time that an Indian rep was convinced that Chicago-Phoenix was an international flight. Other examples is suggesting San Francisco as an alternative to Los Angeles and thinking that Seattle was in Washington, DC. Can you name 5 cities in India? More importantly, can you expect someone in Bangalore to understand where Omaha is?
Accents can also create problems, like the time I tried to go from Chicago-O’hare to Washington-Dulles, and was given a routing of ORD-DCA-ORD-DFW. I still want to know how that was possible, and why the CSR didn’t see anything wrong with that.
That said, isn’t this the same system that JetBlue uses for their CSRs? And to reiterate what Patrick and Amy said, will they have the authority do do anything that isn’t in their script?
Both Virgin and the homeshoring company need to be careful. Just because an agent is in the U.S. doesn’t mean they won’t have an accent. Many U.S. citizens have accents. Heck, Branson has an accent and is hard to understand at times. Not hiring someone because they have an accent can cost a company millions in damages and fines. Do we want a foreign controlled company like Virgin to discriminate against U.S. citizens?
I’m on minute 25 of a simple customer service call to Virgin America. They were supposed to refund the full ticket price for a flight they cancelled and they took out a service charge they’d promised not to. INdia-schmindia- I just want good service. 26 minutes and counting…
I would have given this airline an A after my initial flight to New York. It was clean, timely and had extra great amenties (I.e. I can keep up on politics and watch CNN in my seat. But wheb I had to come home early for a funeral, I was completely unable to reach a representative. That–to me is totally unacceptable. For once in my life I wasn’t near the internet to fix it on my own. But a boutique and service oriented airline need to have a live person available at all times. And I won’t even bother discussing my 240 dollar change fee! So while it may look good on paper…don’t buy into this hype!
It seems the “no calls to India” promise was broken.
I was just on the phone for 10 frustrating minutes trying to do the simple task of getting the Elevate#s of my husband and sons. The fellow on the line had to repeat himself around 10 times before we got through my husband’s number. By the time we were half-way through struggling to get my first son’s number, I gave up, and asked him to transfer me to somebody who could maybe help me a little more clearly. I was transfered, sat on hold, all lines were busy and I was disconnected. Calling back, I was connected to a woman who spoke clear english and she was able to give me the three elevate numbers in 60 seconds. Which is what should have happened in the first place. I noticed someone on this site say ‘what’s wrong with India’, and another: ‘this sounds like discrimination’. It’s not. It’s about service. if you are doing customer service…on the phone…speaking clearly and understandibly must be a requirement. That is why people are so tired of the other airlines.