Qantas call centre in Suva, Fiji

[drron]

But just because someone is based in an offshore call centre doesn't mean they can't be trained. One of the best AA agents I had to deal with was based in Manilla and it was her first week on the job. She knew the AA requirements whilst I filled her in on some of the practical points from the customers perspective. We both learnt something that day. Bottom line AA did obviously train their staff in Manilla. Can't say the same for QF.

 

[sudoer]

But just because someone is based in an offshore call centre doesn't mean they can't be trained.

Agree - you rarely see complaints around the Auckland call centre

 

[Assassin]

But just because someone is based in an offshore call centre doesn't mean they can't be trained. One of the best AA agents I had to deal with was based in Manilla and it was her first week on the job. She knew the AA requirements whilst I filled her in on some of the practical points from the customers perspective. We both learnt something that day. Bottom line AA did obviously train their staff in Manilla. Can't say the same for QF.

Agreed. Staff in Fiji or South Africa or Philippines aren’t inherently worse than Australians. It’s purely down to training and infrastructure.

 

[clifford]

It’s purely down to training and infrastructure.

I think experience and culture also play a part.

A little while ago I had a flight cancellation on a UA award ticket which obviously invalidated the whole trip. When I called to get it fixed, I was put through to the Philippines call centre, and the agent said nothing could be done as there was no alternative flight from A to B on the same carrier (I was flying A to C via B).

I thought that's ridiculous as the airline had cancelled the flight, so I HUCA'd and next time got a very helpful agent in the US, who had no problem in rebooking me on a flight from A to C (which was my actual destination), bypassing the connection in B. This suited me and was at no cost to UA.

It's a pity that the agent in Manila was a stickler for what she thought were the rules (as per her "training") and couldn't see the silliness of what she was saying. She was not prepared to think outside of the box that she thought her training had provided, but which was in fact erroneous.

 

[BRIS_VA_HAWK]

Invariably offshore centres have very little (if any) discretion, whereas direct employees will either have some discretion, knowledge of how to wangle the rules (generally gained through experience) or who to send you through to so it gets done. Sure you'll get the occasional gems in some offshores, but most often it's rocks.

 

[Townsend]

Spent a very unsuccessful 45 mins on the phone with the Fijian call centre yesterday. I am unsure how this can be viewed as a professional call centre for an asx listed company when the background noise were many clucking chickens!

45 minutes listening to chickens summed up my whole experience.

 

[Danger]

Spent a very unsuccessful 45 mins on the phone with the Fijian call centre yesterday. I am unsure how this can be viewed as a professional call centre for an asx listed company when the background noise were many clucking chickens!

45 minutes listening to chickens summed up my whole experience.

I always thought the clucking chickens signified Manila.

 

[Townsend]

I could be wrong.

 

[AustraliaPoochie]

Working from home!

 

[AIRwin]

Working from home!

Cooped up working from home!

 

[AustraliaPoochie]

We will never know for sure.
Unless querier had asked, "what is that noise in the background"?
But I guess that Townsend would have wished his/her 45 "unsucceesful" mins wasted passed faster, and could have been a successful phone call result.
The mind boggles though wondering what is ok when a "outsourced" call centre/center operates like this, shocking, really, for a large company like QF, but as they are now at the bottom of the barrel cheapiness, I guess, in a way, should be expected.
But even after AJ leaves, will things ever change?
There is also the thread: below: "*Qantas Fiji Call Centre - vacuous drones", most likely very bad echo/noise in the background.

 

[Ro0ongi]

I called QF 10 times on 3 different numbers yesterday as I wanted to speak to someone who could help as my name was written incorrectly on a points booking. Every time I got the Fiji call Ctr who could not correct the small problem. They just told me to keep trying until I got someone in Australia that could help.
Extremely frustrating!!

 

[AIRwin]

They just told me to keep trying until I got someone in Australia that could help.

They couldn't even do a warm transfer?

 

[Mattg]

I called QF 10 times on 3 different numbers yesterday as I wanted to speak to someone who could help as my name was written incorrectly on a points booking. Every time I got the Fiji call Ctr who could not correct the small problem. They just told me to keep trying until I got someone in Australia that could help.
Extremely frustrating!!

That's really pathetic.

They couldn't even do a warm transfer?

No, this doesn't seem to be possible with the Qantas call centre. The agents don't have the option (and they really ought to).

 

[jpp42]

No, this doesn't seem to be possible with the Qantas call centre. The agents don't have the option (and they really ought to).

Apparently, instead of implementing a totally reasonable system whereby the offshore call centres can validate if an escalation to onshore is necessary, and transfer you directly if so, the Qantas response is to implement a system whereby it keeps track of how many times you call and if you're calling over and over, it's more likely to transfer you to the onshore centre.

Because it makes so much sense to force the customer to call over and over again, and get more and more frustrated, rather than just training the offshore staff with rules on what they should and shouldn't transfer to Hobart...

I don't know how it's possible for the Qantas call centre managers to be so incredibly incompetent.

 

[Ade]

escalation to onshore is necessary

Guess the keyword here is *necessary*. Who/what determines if an escalation is necessary ... At the risk of sounding *unfriendly* - if the managers are also trained in the same fashion/content as their staff (or were promoted from being a staff), then the *incompetence* travels up the chain to the level of a manager, who then, based on their *knowledge* can deem an escalation inappropriate, thereby forcing customers to HUCA, which decreases customer satisfaction, experience and other parameters.

Qantas response is to implement a system whereby it keeps track of how many times you call and if you're calling over and over, it's more likely to transfer you to the onshore centre.

My experience so far, I have been lucky enough to get HBA/AKL between 0800 and 2300 AEST. I do get Fiji/CPT/MNL occasionally. In the past 2 weeks, I have got Fiji twice, AKL/HBA 4 times ...

I don't know how it's possible for the Qantas call centre managers to be so incredibly incompetent.

It's a training issue perhaps. I have worked in training users for IT products and it is various factors, including laziness that contributes to an undesirable outcome. Some folks don't like to be trained or their interests lay elsewhere, but the organization forces them into getting trained. I'm sure QF would have placed some AU trained staff in CPT/Fiji/MNL to act as the local point of contact for *technical* things, but how *available* the staff are will also contribute to the issues.

For instance, when I was training some users based in Asia on a certain technical product - I had written the SOPs, technical guides etc, provided onsite training, hands-on experience etc, the works ... still I get phone calls about certain issues that they just don't seem to understand/willing to learn or even look up the right search item in the documents I provided ... and we have a local resource, who trained, worked here in AU, located in Asia to handle any queries. But this resource is super busy all the times trying to fix the mistakes, they don't have the time to actually train the staff on certain aspects ... and the lack of training at this point add fuel to the fire, so to speak .. so I guess it is a cycle ... Unless there is a dedicated support team that can sort of hand-hold, things won't improve to our satisfaction ...

 

[AustraliaPoochie]

I don't know how it's possible for the Qantas call centre managers to be so incredibly incompetent.

I don't see it as incompetent, its more about them saving money.
But its not only QF, its nearly every other large business in Aust, ie, they have found the cheapest way to operate.
If money wasn't important, QF would have a while back started to bring all their call centers (grin: wry joke), back to Aust, thus keeping us satisfied.
But no, they are happy as it is now, "skeleton staffing in call centre" HBA, and pay the rest "peanuts" via the outsourced call centers.
VA have theirs in MNL too.

 

[Assassin]

I don't see it as incompetent, its more about them saving money.
But its not only QF, its nearly every other large business in Aust, ie, they have found the cheapest way to operate.
If money wasn't important, QF would have a while back started to bring all their call centers (grin: wry joke), back to Aust, thus keeping us satisfied.
But no, they are happy as it is now, "skeleton staffing in call centre" HBA, and pay the rest "peanuts" via the outsourced call centers.
VA have theirs in MNL too.

I’ve had plenty of good experiences with call centres in Philippines or other overseas locations. The issue is not Australia v overseas, it’s about the capability and training of the people.

 

[BRIS_VA_HAWK]

I’ve had plenty of good experiences with call centres in Philippines or other overseas locations. The issue is not Australia v overseas, it’s about the capability and training of the people.

Spot on. Even though MNL (and other offshore call centres) are cheaper to operate than Australia, there is still a large differential between what's offered in those locations as well.

I'm sure QF would have placed some AU trained staff in CPT/Fiji/MNL to act as the local point of contact for *technical* things, but how *available* the staff are will also contribute to the issues.

Don't be so sure. For my previous company we did 8-12 weeks training for the new staff and their managers, and then the AUS-based staff went home... left it all for the MNL based staff to deal with, but if they needed to escalate then they had numbers to call. Whether they did or not was another matter.

 

[Mr H]

Could there also be a thing that the subcontracted call centre staff are afraid of doing anything that would lead QF to make a chargeback to Mindpearl? The direct Qantas employees in AKL and HBA have a feel for how much latitude they have and know that if they err of the side of generosity, nothing terrible will happen to them. But if the Mindpearl agents think their initiative could cost Mindpearl money - and cost them their jobs - they are always going to err on the side of caution.