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Virgin Blue Call Centre Takes Award 2 Years Running


Virgin Blue continues to be a champion of choice with both the Call Centre and Website recognised for being the best in the business.
Call Centre: The airline has been awarded a major Call Centre award for the second year in a row, cementing its position as Australia’s leading airline when it comes to low fares and Customer care.
At a gala ceremony in Sydney over the weekend, the low fare carrier was recognised as the best provider of customer service in the Travel and Transport section of the Teleperformance CRM (Customer Relationship Management) Grand Prix 2002.
Virgin Blue took out the award last year and repeated its outstanding performance, again surpassing some of the world’s best-known industry names including Qantas, Singapore Airlines, Air New Zealand and British Airways.


The judging involved contact via e-mail and telephone with the “mystery judges” marking Virgin Blue team members across a period of three months on a range of performance factors including overall efficiency, sales awareness, warmth of welcome, product knowledge, commercial awareness and overall attitude.
Call Centre Manager, Susy Goldner said, “We are over the moon at being recognised two years running, especially considering we are still a new kid on the block in the airline industry. Our team prides itself on doing the best they possibly can for our Guests and we are thrilled our high standards are not only being maintained, but exceeded.”
She continued, “Last year we had one Call Centre and over 100 staff and we won on sheer passion and raw energy. This year we have 2 Call Centres and 270 staff oozing enthusiasm and commitment for our new enhanced call handling guidelines which are aimed at ensuring all Guests are made aware of every detail to make their Virgin Blue flight more enjoyable.”
Teleperformance placed more than 5,000 phone calls and e-mails to various Call Centres around the country to determine the winner.
Sascha Percuoco, Teleperformance CRM Grand Prix Co-ordinator, said, “For an airline with a fun reputation, Virgin Blue takes its Customer Care seriously and we congratulate them on again being recognised for their commitment to high standards.”
www.virginblue.com.au: Virgin Blue’s website is also almost twice as fast and more reliable as the equivalent searches on Qantas.com.au.
That’s according to a recent test conducted by independent survey leaders AC Neilsen who processed a search for a return flight from Melbourne to Sydney on Christmas Eve (returning 1 January 03) on both Virgin Blue and Qantas over 2000 times from multiple locations and networks around Australia.
ACNielsen.consult analyst Alex Duke said, “When tested from the consumer perspective Virgin Blue’s online service was able to process a search for available flights in almost half the time it took to perform the same process through Qantas, and with much fewer failures.”
Virgin Blue Head of Commercial, David Huttner said, “What this means is that regardless of how Guests or travel agents want to book with us, be it over the phone or on Virgin Blue’s website www.virginblue.com.au, they don’t just get great fares, they get even greater service.”
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