Air New Zealand makes short-term move to ease call centre pressures

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Photo: Unsplash / Douglas Bagg

Air New Zealand is working with an Australian call centre company with a base in the Philippines to expand its call centre support for customers.

The national carrier says the move is a short-term extra layer of support for more than 500 contact centre workers at Air New Zealand and was aimed at reducing wait times.

“Our customers have been waiting long enough for us to improve,” the airline’s chief customer and sales officer Leanne Geraghty said.

“It’s important to note that this isn’t about taking anything away from what we currently have in operation and this extra support will not reduce jobs here in New Zealand.

“In fact, we will continue to hire as many people as we can to keep our New Zealand contact centre staffed, and we’ll still manage customer service here in New Zealand.”

Geraghty said the airline had worked to rebuild its post-Covid-19 workforce but had struggled to fill customer service roles.

“The number of people who make it through the recruitment process to serve our customers is well short of what we need to deliver a real lift in service.”

The measure will be in place from early next year with the hope of reducing customer wait times, especially for social media and email communications, Geraghty said.