Amadeus turns customer service model on its head

Amadeus Southern Africa has redefined the manner in which it interacts with the market by establishing a dedicated Amadeus Customer Care Hub.

"We have listened to the market and broken down traditional silos in the business so that the customer feedback loop now encompasses a truly 360-degree view," explains Immanuel Banza, the company's senior manager of customer services. "What this means is that the functions of account management, training and the call centre are now integrated seamlessly so that feedback from the market is fed into both training and the call centre so that we can be more responsive."

According to Amadeus, the transformation of operations to be more customer-focused follows a process of evaluating how to improve the feedback loop and thereby ensure that queries or problems from the field are addressed properly and efficiently. The level and type of support provided will also extend beyond Amadeus’s traditional focus, with more attention given to helping travel agencies operate effectively in an online world.

This has been addressed by creating the Customer Care Hub to enable the effective gathering of intelligence from the market by account managers, which is fed into both the solutions team, call centre and training department.

More attention will be placed on the 'soft skills' required in today's travel agency environment, particularly on how customers can adapt their business models and practices to operate in this new environment.

In order to gain a better understanding of the industry's pain points, account managers and business analysts will be trained to delve into those problems and how Amadeus can assist. Interventions, like training, will therefore extend beyond traditional system functionality to include issues such as better use of online marketing tools and strategies, more effective time management and using other online tools so they can add value to their customers.

The last cog in this refashioned customer-service wheel is the call centre, which is often the first port of call for Amadeus customers needing to resolve an issue. In recognition of the important role this facility plays, staff will be reskilled and better integrated into the customer service loop.

"The call centre will be sensitised to problems customers experience by having the account managers provide input from the market through the Customer Care Hub so that there is an organisation-wide understanding of the issues and solutions," says Immanuel. "This will also lead to a pool of specialists in the call centre versed in various elements of the agents' business so they can provide targeted assistance to specific problems."