Qantas off shoring FF loyalty call centre

[badseed]

Two friends have apparently lost their jobs as part of this 'restructure'.

Both really take pride in their work and it's fair to say that the entire team is in shock at the moment. Of course there are thankfully fairly decent job prospects in Melbourne at the moment, but they are / were (extremely) loyal to QF. One of them has a strong family history with working for the QF group across 3 generations.

It shows that similar to the FF programmes, loyalty is usually a one-way street with companies. If they can save a buck at your expense they won't hesitate.

I wish all of the workers luck with their transition.

 

[Buzzard]

Seems to be the story of Australia - do everything off shore.
Let's manufacture off shore because it's cheaper
Let's move our call centre's off shore because it's cheaper
How many choose to live "off shore" because it's cheaper

Seriously, I'm not surprised this has happened.

 

[serfty]

I've found the AA Fiji call centre to be really good. I'm with love_the_life - I find the americano- Filipino lilt really difficult to understand.

These days they are pretty reasonable; but when it was first set up in Fiji, they were indeed atrocious.

 

[love_the_life]

To be fair to Filipino call centre workers, they are indeed not all bad. It really depends on their KPI's, training, level of empowerment and how the call centre is set up. Some of the more atrocious call centres you can just tell they have tight targets for dealing with calls and want to get you off the phone as quick as possible to get to the next call. Others you can tell quality and customer satisfaction is more important, these are better, and are often accompanied by an ability to rate the agent after the call by dialling in a number from 1 to x.

And which model do you think QFF will be using - I'm not taking bets.

 

[Scr77]

I'm pissed about this. Not because I call often, but because Qantas charges a premium because it's Australian. Where do all these 'Australian' companies think we are going to get money to purchase their products, if no one is employed in Australia?

 

[Sdtravel]

QF should take a page out of a US company i know of who just decided to pull out of Manila and move the call centre back to the States. MNL were mainly responsible for online chat, sales and customer support. Management decided after 3+ years that it wasnt working out and more often the US call centre / support teams were supporting the MNL call centre.
Perhaps QF will come to this realisation although it will be hard to get back all the great staff they have previously in AUS.

 

[Cool Cat Phil]

This will be no different to the JQ confusion centre. Gah....

Yep, talking to the JQ call centre ( which thankfully happens in a blue moon for me) is testing to put it politely.

Some Australian companies have made it a policy to only have Australian-based call centres. eg. NAB is one I am aware of.

The CBA have the same policy too.

 

[Pushka]

And people/companies wonder why Trump was elected.

 

[Limewood]

As if their not making enough bread, it really is awful behaviour and its so sad for the dedicated experienced Qantas Aussie staff, I do hope the media get hold of this.

 

[mannej]

Yep, talking to the JQ call centre ( which thankfully happens in a blue moon for me) is testing to put it politely.



The CBA have the same policy too.

CBA also has a Philippine based call centre as well.

 

[samh004]

This really upsets* me. They make enough money to offset the cost and not subject their customers to what will surely be more difficult to understand calls. Certainly, with any offshoring talk things tend to take on a racist feel, but for an Australian company the easiest people to converse with are Australians. It is simple common sense. I grew up in Asia but I still find Aussies easier to speak to... mostly!

I'm very disappointed* with this development!

*Not the words I wanted to use.

 

[Pushka]

I agree re the difficulty of complaining about going offshore and the tilt such posts can lend to looking like racist comments. But Q pride(d) itself on being Australian. What a joke. On us!

 

[samh004]

I agree re the difficulty of complaining about going offshore and the tilt such posts can lend to looking like racist comments. But Q pride(d) itself on being Australian. What a joke. On us!

Yes, that's another reason they should be focused on keeping their jobs in Australia.

Maybe one day they'll work that out.

Currently every other call I'm invited to do a survey and I usually enter 9 (very good), 9 (highly recommend), 1 (solved) or similar. Perhaps after the switch I'll be less likely to award such high results, and if they care about customer satisfaction it might influence a change.

 

[GoldCanyon340]

OT: I do wonder who occupies so much of that space on Coward St at Mascot, if Qantas is outsourcing so many functions overseas.

That's my old office you're talking about! We had a great view from the 9th floor over Botany Bay, SIT and 16R/34L.

 

[AustraliaPoochie]

Currently every other call I'm invited to do a survey and I usually enter 9 (very good), 9 (highly recommend), 1 (solved) or similar. Perhaps after the switch I'll be less likely to award such high results, and if they care about customer satisfaction it might influence a change.

A lot of time too, when my chat with the CSO/CSA ends, and I am ready to press those buttons, the call ends.
So, the opportunity of us to give a "review" of the work of the officer/assistant is thereby lost.

 

[AustraliaPoochie]

That's my old office you're talking about! We had a great view from the 9th floor over Botany Bay, SIT and 16R/34L.

OT: They have prcactically pulled down/torn down a lot of the old buildings, facing the Holiday Inn Sydney Airport, and redone it.
When QF said it was short of cash a few years ago, I am shocked when I see what they can do.
Maybe they sold off T3 at SYDd and have come into the money.
Back to the gist of this post though, poor form of QF to do this offshoring to save money.

 

[TheInsider]

OT: They have prcactically pulled down/torn down a lot of the old buildings, facing the Holiday Inn Sydney Airport, and redone it.
When QF said it was short of cash a few years ago, I am shocked when I see what they can do.
Maybe they sold off T3 at SYDd and have come into the money.
Back to the gist of this post though, poor form of QF to do this offshoring to save money.

It was something to do with a long term lease. I think the original one was up, and to secure the long term lease they could do what they wanted. Or something along those lines.

 

[Danger]

I'm not sure the spirit of Australia is to offshore jobs. I'm Australian and it's certainly not part of my spirit.

I want their logo changed or I might just complain to the ACCC about false and misleading advertising.

 

[JohnK]

I agree re the difficulty of complaining about going offshore and the tilt such posts can lend to looking like racist comments. But Q pride(d) itself on being Australian. What a joke. On us!

Racist? "We shouldn't be offshoring any Australian jobs" is not a racist comment. Not even close. We need to look after Australia first even if that involves some extra cost.

In saying that I'd love to holiday more locally but the outrageous costs for labour send me overseas. I guess that's how Qantas sees the situation.

 

[N860CR]

Racist? "We shouldn't be offshoring any Australian jobs" is not a racist comment. Not even close. We need to look after Australia first even if that involves some extra cost.

In saying that I'd love to holiday more locally but the outrageous costs for labour send me overseas. I guess that's how Qantas sees the situation.

The outrageous costs for labour is also the reason we can all afford to travel overseas so freely.

The quality of call centers in the Philippines is directly proportionate to the amount paid by the company. It's very easy to tell which company pays the least when you call (and the staff member is no better than a robot). Some are ok... depends what Qantas pay.

The one common factor is, however, that none of them care about you or your concerns. Their job is to get you off the phone. While some QF staff in Aus are terrible, I've crossed some excellent ones who bend over backwards to make sure they can achieve what you want because they have a genuine desire to do so. They also take a genuine interest as they can relate. These people in the third world on minimum wage cannot even comprehend a first class seat, so you can imagine how concerned they are about your efforts to book one.

I've actually had an Indian call centre worker tell me that "I wasn't left on the street and got a bed so that is all that matters" when a 5 star villa overbooked and moved me into a hotel.