Air New Zealand has reported its second-best underlying profit ever, and high airfares have driven revenue. Video / NZ Herald
Some Air New Zealand customers continue to suffer long delays while waiting for their calls to be answered, prompting the airline to make a big move to help cut waiting times that can stretch for hours.
Work has been under way for months to find a solution, and it cannow be revealed the airline has signed a deal with an Australian call centre company with a base in the Philippines, where a team of up to 100 staff will be dedicated to handling online inquiries from Air New Zealand customers.
It is the first time the airline has set up a call centre overseas, and workers in Manila will start handling email and social media inquiries from early next year.
But the airline stresses phone inquiries – often relating to the most complex problems particularly from overseas - will still be handled by more than 500 New Zealand-based staff and it is not shipping jobs offshore. It says it doesn’t make sense to extend its contact centre functions for what could be a short time in this country, and it is struggling to find staff for the operations it already has here.
Some angry customers have complained of waiting for hours to talk to the airline’s staff, and this has damaged the airline’s reputation.
Air New Zealand chief customer and sales officer Leanne Geraghty said the airline has worked hard to rebuild its service levels.
“Unfortunately, despite all of our best efforts, we are not where we need to be.”
While wait times for phone inquiries can be around 10 minutes on average on good days, this can blow out to three hours or more if there is a severe disruption in the airline’s network.
While it has been building more resilience into its system through a hiring blitz and bringing back planes, it faces long-term disruption due to a Pratt & Whitney engine maintenance issue that could stretch on for years.
“This isn’t about taking anything away from what we currently have in operation here. This is a short-term additional layer that we’re putting in place to get our service where it needs to be.”
Air NZ earlier this year began working with West Australia-founded firm TSA, which has bases around that country and a 4000-strong workforce in the Philippines. It opened the operation in 2014 in Manila offering “Smartshoring” services.
Air New Zealand considered using offshore contact centres before the pandemic but didn’t go through with the plan. Earlier this year, Sky Television moved some call centre jobs to the Philippines.
Geraghty said Air NZ had worked with unions and assured them there would be no staff losses.
The pressure on staff in call centres here would be reduced. “We’re trying to be transparent about what we’re doing and why we’re doing it,” said Geraghty, who has visited TSA in the Philippines.
“We are not sending jobs offshore, we are retaining all of our employees and our service partner employees and looking to hire more here locally.”
Manila in the Philippines is a global capital for the call centre industry. Photo / Thinkstock
Air New Zealand works with Mt Albert-based contact desk specialist firm Concentrix in this country, which she said couldn’t offer the digital service it needed to handle an average of 9000 inquiries a week.
Between Air NZ and Concentrix, there are 530 staff in New Zealand, up from 409 just before the pandemic hit in early 2020.
Post-pandemic, the airline is dealing with Covid credits and a surge in travel demand as it has faced disruption caused by severe weather and aircraft and staff shortages. And now it’s beginning to get in touch with thousands of customers who face disruption next year and beyond, as the first of 14 Airbus A320/21 planes hit by the Pratt & Whitney problem are progressively taken out of service next year for maintenance.
Most of Air NZ’s contact centre staff work remotely, but the airline didn’t want to set up a dedicated centre out of Auckland.
“We would like to think that this is a short-term situation, and therefore we didn’t [want] a scenario where we set up infrastructure, an entire team of people, for us only to 12 months down the track have to go and say, ‘Sorry, we no longer have work for you’.”
Geraghty said the TSA staff would get broad training before starting work with Air New Zealand.
“We’ll be making sure that we provide the same training our own people get. And we will also be putting additional lenses over that in terms of grammar, English and responsiveness, plus a cultural and brand layer, which is really important,” she said.
Despite signs the labour market will loosen, she said there was still a shortage of suitable candidates for contact centre staff.
The airline had already run 15 assessment events for potential recruits around the country for recruits during the past 10 months, but around half of those who had signed up didn’t turn up, and many who did were unsuitable.
“There are people that would love to do the job [who] come along and seem like a perfect fit. But then because it’s quite complex and there’s a lot to deal with, [they] learn it’s not for them.”
