The new Amadeus Service Center-Americas, a state-of-the-art, in-sourced customer help center staffed by Amadeus employees “raises the bar” on customer service for Amadeus users across North America and South America. It will serve 39 countries in total, including the U.S. and Canada. It is based out of two state-of-the art facilities in San Jose, Costa Rica, and Buenos Aires. Amadeus said 2010 plans includes a soon-to-launch, new and improved customer extranet for North American travel agencies offering key features and time-savers such as online bill payment and debit memo processing.
“Travel professionals told us that they needed better service and assistance, and we listened,” said Scott Gutz, COO for Amadeus North America. “The new Amadeus Service Center-Americas represents a holistic, integrated, and collaborative approach to service. This will result in more knowledgeable staff and better resolution for customer issues—on the first call.”
The Amadeus Service Center-Americas employs a large in-house support staff who will provide functional and technical support to Amadeus travel professionals. The two facilities support each other and are in the same time zones as the Amadeus customers they serve. They also work in conjunction with the other Amadeus customer support networks worldwide. Additional technical support will be provided out of Amadeus’ regional headquarters in Miami, and by partner offices in Peachtree City, GA, and Kingston, Jamaica.
“Amadeus created this new center as part of our mission to improve the quality of customer service across our organization and to showcase our strong commitment to the Americas region,” said Gutz. “It’s rare these days for any company to handle customer service in-house. We wanted to buck the trend and go beyond what’s expected by today’s business standards.”
Gutz added that the customer support team represents a group of highly-competent, multilingual experts who truly understand Amadeus solutions, technology and the complex nature of travel. Each member of the Amadeus Service Center-Americas undergoes an intensive training program followed by constant reviews and ongoing learning programs. The customer support team also has open communications with all Amadeus departments, enabling them to trouble-shoot and solve problems that arise while finding ways to pre-empt others.
“We’re able to track not just one customer’s history, both online and over the phone, for faster trouble shooting—but also globally, in terms of the issues that arise among customers all over the world,” said Gutz.
In July 2009 in North America, Amadeus launched the Amadeus e-Support Center, an online portal providing customer support 24/7. Gutz said for Amadeus customers in North America, the new Americas center, the online Amadeus e-Support Center and many other tools are now all linked together globally for streamlined support and improved service.
Gutz said continued evolution in the customer support area is a long-term approach for Amadeus and continued investment is planned into 2010 and beyond.
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