Guatemala call centre

Please find attached from travel weekly.

I refrain from comment in case I breach guidelines again.

Thanks to Andy for pointing out my errors

Travel weeekly

• News
  
• Jobs
  
• Events
  
• Agent Area
  

• News
  
• Travel Agents
  
• Tour Operators
  
• Cruise
  
• Air
  
• Accommodation
  
• Luxury
  
• Technology
  

Royal dispatches staff to help Guatemala call centre

By Hollie-Rae Merrick | 18 June 2014 at 17.11 GMT Comments (Checking...)

Royal Caribbean International is to send seven of its UK support team to its new call centre in Guatemala as it admitted the centre wasn’t “working quite as it should do yet”.

The line outsourced its support centre to Guatemala last year, prompting fears among agents that service levels could be hit.

Speaking at an event in Dublin for the Irish travel trade, UK and Ireland managing director Stuart Leven said the centre had been performing well until its “umbilical cord” with Royal Caribbean’s support team in Weybridge, Surrey, was cut in April.

Leven said three of the seven staff being sent to Guatemala would be based there permanently.

“Over the last six months, we have gradually moved calls from London over to Guatemala and it isn’t working quite as it should do yet, if we are honest,” he said.

“We got it to a reasonable shape until the end of April, when we pulled our team and cut the umbilical cord to see if these guys could stand on their own two feet.”

He said the Guatemalan centre’s service levels were good, basic queries weren’t an issue and call-handling times were almost on par with the former UK call centre.

But he admitted requests for administrative changes and for bookings other than basic cruises had caused problems. The seven supervisors will train the call centre staff on back-office administration.

Leven added: “It’s going to get better and we are committed to it – we are throwing a lot of additional expense and money at it. We still believe we have the right service partner. I appreciate it causes some hassle [for agents].”

Chas Simmons, director of CruiseXperts, said: “The staff at the call centre are very polite but not too accurate. They seem OK with things that are scripted but outside of that it is a real struggle.

“It’s a bit like they have been thrown in at the deep end.”

There has been a lot of discussion about this, and this same extract posted, over on the RCI boards in the last few days. I do hope they are able to resolve the issues that guests on both lines and their agents have reported. Settling in a change often takes longer than the consultants tell the board to allow!

Hmmm. Well to back this up we recently tried to get a price on an Azamara Journey cruise for 2015 and our TA advised us that despite a call to Guatemala she was unable to get pricing as no flights were available.

Given that Azamara's current promotion included free or reduced prices this seemed a bit of a joke to me, so in frustration I emailed the UK MD.

Have to say that the response from Mr. Twynam was prompt and courteous and most importantly, there was a follow up response from his team which has allowed our TA to accurately price and quote this voyage.

The jury is still out on whether they've also managed to fix the lack of emails but an excellent start though it does emphasise the difficulties of having to communicate with the current set up.

Hmmm. Well to back this up we recently tried to get a price on an Azamara Journey cruise for 2015 and our TA advised us that despite a call to Guatemala she was unable to get pricing as no flights were available.

 

Given that Azamara's current promotion included free or reduced prices this seemed a bit of a joke to me, so in frustration I emailed the UK MD.

 

Have to say that the response from Mr. Twynam was prompt and courteous and most importantly, there was a follow up response from his team which has allowed our TA to accurately price and quote this voyage.

 

The jury is still out on whether they've also managed to fix the lack of emails but an excellent start though it does emphasise the difficulties of having to communicate with the current set up.

Thank you for posting this David, I am in a similar situation to you, but I decided to go ahead and book as cruise only, on advice from my TA to secure the cabin I wanted and then sort the flights out when they became available.

Since reading your post I have also emailed Mr Twynam and hopefully I will be reassured with his response :)

Hello Proctor,

I'm glad Host Andy has responded to you. I wasn't aware your thread had been 'censored' (your earlier words). I am a guest just as you are. I believe only our Host, or the CC management can censor, or merge, a thread.

Re. The thread topic of our Guatemala Call Center, I invite you to email the UK MD, Richard Twynam at rtwynam@azamaraclubcruises.com.

He continues to make himself available via email for those of you who want to talk to someone in market.

Bonnie

Hi Everyone,

I'd like to make it clear that I was not "censoring" anything.

Over the weekend, Two nearly identical threads were created by a member, which violated our Guidelines, and required removal. As I'm passionate about helping our community members whenever possible, I reached out to the member, offering guidance on properly posting their comment. The corrected post, is located at the top of this thread, and all is well.

I hope this helps clarify any potential confusion. Thank you very much !

Re. The thread topic of our Guatemala Call Center, I invite you to email the UK MD, Richard Twynam at rtwynam@azamaraclubcruises.com.

He continues to make himself available via email for those of you who want to talk to someone in market.

Bonnie

Hi Bonnie,

I'd like to commend Azamara for making the email address of your UK MD available to those who require assistance.

I'm currently trying to address some important concerns with one of RCCL's sister brands. To try and obtain the email address of the person whom I'm sure could assist - (and, I'd like to provide some excellent suggestions to assist their Guests with similiar concerns), has been nothing short of impossible. It's truly sad when you feel like there's nobody to reach out to, and it's nice to see Azamara taking a consumer friendly & inviting approach !

Hi Bonnie,

 

I'd like to commend Azamara for making the email address of your UK MD available to those who require assistance.

 

I'm currently trying to address some important concerns with one of RCCL's sister brands. To try and obtain the email address of the person whom I'm sure could assist - (and, I'd like to provide some excellent suggestions to assist their Guests with similiar concerns), has been nothing short of impossible. It's truly sad when you feel like there's nobody to reach out to, and it's nice to see Azamara taking a consumer friendly & inviting approach !

I absolutely agree with you, the presence of Bonnie does help in resolving issues.

I contacted the UK MD yesterday and he responded very promptly and within an

hour I had received a call from a member of the UK team giving me the answers I needed. An excellent response.

However, I have to ask, would this have been necessary if we had retained the original team in the UK and not exported the jobs to Guatemala?

I understand that the line needs to minimise costs to stay competitive but this has not been a popular move in my opinion.

It seems to be a case of 'if it ain't broke, don't fix it'.

With all the money they are "throwing" at this call centre, it would of been cheaper to not have bothered and kept the UK centre!

Hi Bonnie,

 

I'd like to commend Azamara for making the email address of your UK MD available to those who require assistance.

 

I'm currently trying to address some important concerns with one of RCCL's sister brands. To try and obtain the email address of the person whom I'm sure could assist - (and, I'd like to provide some excellent suggestions to assist their Guests with similiar concerns), has been nothing short of impossible. It's truly sad when you feel like there's nobody to reach out to, and it's nice to see Azamara taking a consumer friendly & inviting approach !

Hello Host Andy,

thank you for your kind words. If I can reflect on this a minute (perhaps I'd be advised not to, but I will anyway!)...we are all trained to be customer focused, on-shore as on-board. I know from comments that sometimes that is hard to believe, but it is true. Sometimes bureaucracy, budget, or IT systems get in the way on-shore, and sometimes it is a matter of OJT (aka my getting up to speed, ditto for the new call center personnel.) But the common denominator of everyone in the cruise industry is that we want to deliver good service and provide an exceptional vacation experience. I know this holds true for the personnel of our sister companies too.

I 'grew up' in small, independent cruise lines. Luckily Azamara is a small cruise line that just happens to be part of a bigger family. We want to have two-way communication with our customers (Guests) as well as our distribution network (TA, etc). I appreciate your feedback and if there's any way I can help you reach a 'sister' department let me know.

Bonnie