US Customers find airline's accent engaging

by Andrew Bolger, Financial Times, 6 July 98

It seems that having friendly customers who want to engage in conversation is too much for some, especially when they are American. So ran the FT article about British Airways call centres. BA load sheds its calls between its US and UK call centres, thus sometimes an American will find their inquiry or booking handled by someone at BA's Scottish or North of England call centres. The Americans just love the accent and like to reminisce about their times in Scotland. So much, that they just wont get off the line!

BA is concerned about the impact on staff productivity (and therefore its costs), as well as the reduction in call capacity on its expensive transatlantic lines (though in reality these usually cost less than lines to other European countries).

Comment

From experience I guess its the same in financial services. This is another industry that has switched to call centres like there is no tomorrow. Customer Service Representatives (CSR) - just note the words Customer Service - rush through on-screen scripts like it is a race. Well it is a race - a race against the clock because these poor CSR are timed to the second. Apparently, even their bathroom breaks are timed. Again, it's an over zealous drive for lowest cost. The result is burnt out staff, high turnover (9 months is a typical retention period), and irritated customers. A recent Henley Centre survey showed 1 in 10 calls leave customers feeling irritated, annoyed or furious. The report advises many companies to abandon their call centres before they damage their reputations even more.

The Booz Allen Hamilton report last year showed the tremendous cost savings of call centres over traditional High Street outlets. Is it greed or short-sightedness that makes these companies not reinvest part of the savings into creating superior customer service? For example, by allowing CSR time to build an affinity with customers. Of course this can't be done with every customer who calls, but as Peppers & Rogers have described in their book, companies could implement a system similar to GTE Telesystems. At GTE, CSR see on-screen symbols - calendars, sticks of dynamite and money bags - that show at a glance which are the most loyal, most previously upset and most valued customers.

So, with a change of attitude, British Airways could use quiet times to ring recent customers and ask them if they enjoyed their trip. It could call about the same time one year on and invited them back for another visit. Perhaps the CSR could even be given a break to meet the visitors for afternoon tea. Now that would be something to write home about!

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