If you notice a difference in the quality of customer service at Hyatt, particularly via phone and the chat feature, there’s probably a reason for that…
Continue reading: Sad: Hyatt Outsources Most US-Based Customer Service, Phone Support
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Just had a call last week with a rep that seemed to be based in the Philippines, who did not understand how Suite Upgrade Award works. I thought it might be due to the late hours in the U.S., but that unfortunately would be the norm. Instead, I sent an email for the Concierge team to confirm the suite upgrade.
Hi Ben, I don’t think you’ve ever stayed at a Disney Resort or called the Disney reservations/ assistance line, but they are really the best in the industry and it really shows why knowledgeable US based agents are worth it (sad that Hyatt is unable to see that). In the end I casually dropped 6k for a Disney stay + tickets on the phone just because the interaction was so positive and all questions were answered.
My Concierge had pretty outstanding performance and I had great experience with them. But for the phone service, I actually had very opposite experience, and US based employees are just rude and incompetent, I wonder how is that happening (maybe ones with longer tenure became “concierge”?) Whenever I got something urgent, I chose Chinese and those people are just way more helpful.
Same to AA too. I had multiple times that I need to change my award reservation (adding a leg/removing a leg) without touching my transatlantic/pacific leg. I HUCA at least 10+ times, and all those customer service just kept saying “according to the rule, this is not possible”, “you need to cancel the ticket first”, “no you don’t know what you’re doing” etc. etc. (well, excuse me, how did the representative do it then last week?)
It was until once I accidentally dialed the Chinese line because I was out of states that took me 3 mins and got everything done. So far 3 out of 3 it worked like a breeze.
I feel like COVID is the tipping point, my previous experience with HYATT and AA since I joined the hotel/airline world in 2013 was pretty good. It’s just so sad to see US service deteriorated so much and became so uncompetitive.
Hey, well what do you want? Booking hotel rooms is something that's pretty straightforward, unless you have some kind of very special or valuable property that requires customized selling skills. All the info and steps can basically be self-serve.
Americans have a high standard of living and are very expensive to employ. This is what companies are incentivized to do. I guess people in lower cost countries are the beneficiaries of new jobs.
If anyone has a way for this to not happen, please speak up.
I think I've called Hyatt maybe twice over the years. Have used the chat feature a lot, but probably equally or more so have DM'd Hyatt on X (only reason I still have X, actually, for reaching customer service at various companies). Wondering what, if anything, will happen to the team on that channel because it's always been prompt and efficient to get stuff done that way.
“In terms of quality, there’s nothing inherently bad about outsourced call centers.”
Yes, there is. There’s a LOT bad about them.
To lower employment costs and lower taxes, perhaps the federal government could offshore some of its positions.
This.. twitter has been so useful to contact Hyatt for odds and ends things I hope (probably in vain) nothing changes.
Great way to treat your employees, JB Pritzker and family.
Hyatt globalist here. I haven’t heard from my Hyatt globalist concierge in more than a year.
And, when was the last time a Marriott Ambassador heard from their ONSHORE ambassador? I had been Ambassador for years and can only characterize my ambassador as MIA.
And those off shore positions will be replaced increasingly by AI. It is simply the way things are.
@lucky just talked about Marriott moving room assignments to AI. While on one hand that might free up front agent's time, it likely means hotels need less of them.
@Tom,
Agreed. Let's start with the current administration, shall we.
At least they have not been outsourced to India.
I receive a same-day response from my Marriott ambassador and I hear from her a few times a year when she reaches out to see if I have special stays coming up, etc.
To be fair, customer service from a call center in the Philippines is often better than the United States and certainly better than a Spanish-speaking country. The Philippines has one of the highest, if not the highest, English fluency rates in the world. Plus, the people are polite and there’s a genuine service culture. Your average Filipino probably speaks better English than your average American, who has a seventh or eighth grade reading level.
Employees always complain, who cares. Especially low level employees. Outsourced employees have less complaints as they are actually thankful and appreciative to have a job. Rather than here in the US it's complaints about pay, managers, benefits and "work/life balanace".
I am extremely disappointed with all those outsourced call centers, the level of understanding and the impossibility of help in most difficult situations make those call centers a source of disappointment and frustration with a typical phrase " I am sorry to hear that". Marriott...Hilton... Air France...British Airways... KLM... and many more have those call centers that at the end can't help you on difficult situations Because they do. It have autonomy to make most decisions and guided by books, not by customer service
Nothing inherently bad, except for the inability to understand what they are saying; getting hanged up on when they know they cannot assist; when the follow up question is not on the script.
What an alarmingly terrible take.
Because US employees don't want to be exploited and have slave labor wages, they all deserve to have their jobs outsourced?
The employees are what make a company. The company is the one that should be thankful and appreciate them.
Are you stupid? The Pritzker family had nothing to do with this decision. Go cry to Mark Vondrasek Magat
Hyatt’s US agents were stunningly, stunningly, stunningly awful. Hanging up on phone calls, refusing to greet people calling, insulting their guests, and pretending to be managers. I’m sorry these people lost their jobs, hopefully they find ones they’re better suited to in the future.
When Hyatt moved their customer service agents from call centers to their homes after the pandemic service downgraded significantly. The audio quality of the phone calls was horrible plus you heard dogs barking and babies crying in the background. I see this return to call centers as an actual improvement.
I often hear chickens in the background when speaking with Amazon CSRs. I wouldn't draw too many assumptions that it will be "in facility."
Triggered much, Jo, by governor fatass? You're probably lining up to vote for him for president. You moron.
100% - Hyatt's callcenter has been dogshit for years. Rude, incompetent, disinterested ghetto people. Good riddance, nobody will miss them!
Agreed. Good riddance, I no longer need to be berated by some rude b*** in the hood with her spawn and dog in the background.
Agree with what was said in the post that it matters less where the agent is from and more so how they’re trained. Companies outsourcing their call center services has gotten a bad rap, thanks and no small part to companies cutting corners on training for employees in overseas call centers. With the right training and oversight, it’s absolutely possible for agents based overseas to provide the same or better level of service to their counterparts in the United States. At the end of the day, I don’t blame companies for outsourcing their call centers, it makes sense for them, however they need to empower their employees to provide good customer service rather than just seeing it as a cost saving measure.
Just one more reason why I won't be requalifying for Globalist after many years of deliberately booking to obtain this status. Hyatt customer service is nothing at all like it was not so long ago.
I think it's disgusting the way Hyatt treated us their employees like we are nothing but a number to them as my other co- workers Said they had set up a special meetings for us to attend and I was off that day and was told I did not have to attend and towards the end of the day I received the call from HR telling me my whole dept that I work for was no longer going to be there and therefore that day was my last day. I was laid off on the day I was not supposed to work who does that. The same thing was told to me that when they laid off so many people last November that there was not going to be anymore laid off and that my job was secured but as we know that was definitely a lied. That is no way treat people and I hope people will start going to their competition Hilton I know I will.
Most likely, it won't matter because in the next few years all of that will be transitioned to AI agents which are much nicer, more knowledgeable, can help you quicker, and don't have bad days. Embrace the coming changes! We'll be laughing in 10 years that we used to talk to real people...not saying that's a good thing...but it is coming.
They may speak the language, no doubt about it. But they have almost zero logic and if something doesn't follow the little recipe in front of them, they get lost very easily.
Today's experience having assistance booking a three night stay on FNAs via chat because of website issue. Not only did the agent book a stay using my FNAs, they also booked a fully prepaid non refundable reservation for me. It taken more time via phone to untangle ...I already miss phone support being helpful.