Fury with Qantas sending call centre overseas

The Australian Services Union (ASU) is reporting that Qantas will be shifting their Melbourne-based Frequent Flyer program to Manilla and New Zealand in an effort to save costs.

In a press release, the ASU claims that over 100 call centre workers in Melbourne will be losing their jobs by June this year.

Qantas benefits and profits hugely from its reputation on safety and service.The ASU believes that Qantas has an obligation to invest some of those profits back into Australian jobs rather than continuing to off-shore critical functions and services

A Qantas spokesman confirmed the move that they have recently changed their outsourced provider with global call centre outsourcer TeleTech recently securing the Frequent Flyer call centre work. Whilst not addressing the job losses in Melbourne, the Qantas spokesman confirmed that whilst "the majority of calls in Australia to Qantas or Qantas Frequent Flyer are answered in Australia or New Zealand, some other tasks - including emails and some back office functions - are performed offshore through their outsourcing partners.

The ASU is encouraging people to fight back through the following means:

• Make a comment on the Qantas Facebook page
• Tweet using the @qantas handle. 
• If you’re a frequent flyer or Qantas customer send them some feedback about this bad decision by filling out the online customer feedback form here.

Justin Tippett, Managing Director of Contact Centre Central, a website supporting the Australian Contact Centre industry, said that with the high cost of Australian labour, organisations continue to explore the benefits of sending their call centre overseas. "Sadly the customer experience often leaves a lot to be desired and this can result in higher customer attrition, ultimately costing the organisation substantially more in the longer term" Tippett said. 

With self-service and automation becoming increasingly popular, Tippett says the impact is that call volumes to contact centres are reducing. This comes with a caution though, as "what we are seeing in the industry is that the complexity of the calls that come in are increasing, as its normally a result of things going wrong with the automation that has prompted the customer to call.  This 'moment of truth' is when the customer wants to speak to someone who is knowledgable and empowered to resolve the issue and this conversation is often the deciding factor in a customers overall satisfaction and loyalty with a company.  

Sadly when organisations outsource this component overseas that's often far from what they receive. Difficulties with language, an inability to access full internal systems and often having to repeat information thats already been provided are typically high on the list of frustrations for consumers.

With Qantas again making record profits it seems a strange decision to risk further alienating their customers just to save a few dollars. 

And dare I appeal to the nationalistic pride of organisations? There are hundreds of companies out there that have resisted the urge to send their call centre overseas. Why don't you start promoting it?  You might be surprised at the support you will receive.