In a set of moves that leave open questions, American Airlines is making big changes in its customer service operation. AA says the changes will ‘elevate’ the support its customers get, despite laying off nearly 10% of its customer-service staff.
A key part of the change is that separate customer service operations for different types of questions, such as delays, baggage issues, AAdvantage questions and more. The new ‘Customer Success’ team will cut across those divisions to offer one-stop “elevated support to American Airlines customers with some of their most complex travel needs.”
‘Lighter-touch’ problems, the airline says, will then be outsourced to international contact centers that will operate 24/7. The announcement did not make clear where those centers will be or whether they will be staffed by AA direct employees.
The laid-off employees, 335 in Phoenix and 321 in Dallas/FortWorth, will either be slotted into other AA jobs or given outplacement and severance packages.
