1
Travelink
Solutions
Travelink Solutions
1
Sixteen months had passed since William had joined Travelink Solutions’ call center. It had been
a fulfilling and at times, frustrating employment experience. Now he was facing a decision
concerning what to do next. Should he remain and try to make a difference or should he follow
through on his plans to leave? Rather than letting the experience simply fade or become the
subject of selective recall, he had followed through on an old teacher’s advice and documented
the work experience, hoping it might be helpful to him and maybe even to the firm.
Rather than keeping the documentation to himself, he decided to share it with Robert, a close
friend and a marketing manager at Travelink. Discussing his observations with Robert would
help him test the accuracy of his perceptions and sort out what he should do next. When
William had joined the firm he had signed a non-disclosure agreement; consequently when he
William’s background:
William was enthusiastic about his new job at Travelink Solutions Canada: a service company
that provided travel assistance to global travelers on a 24/7 basis. Its core product had been
emergency roadside automobile assistance, but over the years Travelink had expanded into other
areas of travel help, such as legal assistance and emergency travel arrangements. The company
did this for both its own individual customers and for other firms that offered related services but
2
Travelink
Solutions
who had outsourced the product design and/or post sale customer service function to Travelink.
William had successfully completed his final university course requirements while working full
time as a baker on the midnight shift at Tim Horton’s. After eight months of beginning his
workday at 11 pm, it would be nice to reintegrate himself into the realm of daylight. He knew
Call centers: how they operated:
Several call centers were located in William’s home town. The presence of universities and the
ethnic diversity of the area provided call centers with access to a literate and multilingual labour
pool. Further, office rental costs and labour rates were moderate by provincial standards and
there was an excellent telecommunications infrastructure. As a result, many of William’s friends
had worked or were working for other call centers. Their experiences, however, had generally
been negative – particularly for those working in outbound call centers, those that make
unrequested solicitations for everything from rug cleaning services to cell phones and charitable
3
Travelink
Solutions
supportiveness of co-workers and his boss, as well as the satisfaction derived from helping a
customer sort through a difficult situation.
Building a business:
Travelink was founded in 1987, in Jackson, Mississippi, to provide roadside assistance to car
owners. It had grown from a tiny office space of fifteen employees to a billion dollar, global
service firm with offices based in Europe, Asia and Australia. In 1992, a Canadian office of 20
employees was established in William’s home town. Thirteen years later, Travelink Solutions
Canada had grown to 200 employees, occupying two stories of a ten story office building.
Travelink’s offerings had been extended over the years to include insurance policies that
New employee orientation and training:
Training for William commenced December 1st and lasted one month. On his first day, William
joined eleven other new employees, all of whom were university arts graduates. Some (William
included) had been referred to the company through friends that worked for the firm. As a
recruitment incentive, a bonus of $500 dollars was offered to any employee who referred a
potential employee who was hired and successfully completed the training. Travelink Solutions
tried to coordinate its hiring so that a group of 6 to 12 began training at the same time.
4
Travelink
Solutions
William’s trainers, Luther and Marie, seemed approachable and knowledgeable. They worked
diligently to accommodate any questions that were asked about work procedures, customer
service, company policies, or the call centre industry. William found himself quickly integrated
into a comfortable training environment, where dialogue occurred openly and people seemed to
At one of the first training sessions, Marie explained that the Travelink Solutions call center
offered uniquely satisfying service opportunities. The services that associates provided, as she
explained, acted as an island of sanity amidst an ocean of uncertainty and panic. As Marie said:
“you are not merely the voice on the end of the line. You are the line. You are someone’s
lifeline during an inherently unstable, frustrating and, at times, frightening situation. If a
customer’s car breaks down in Mexico, or they get mugged, arrested or stranded in a foreign
land, you are the person they turn to for help.”
Luther told William’s training group that the average cost of recruiting and training a new call
center employee was approximately $14,500. William learned that Travelink Solutions employed
approximately 200 people in the Canadian office, 2/3 of whom were directly involved with the
phones in the call center. Direct sales of Travelink’s services were done through brokers,
agencies, and the internet. Travelink Solutions had a team of underwriters and marketers who
crafted and promoted automobile and travel-related service policies throughout Canada, via its
distribution systems. This group was also heavily involved in the design and delivery of similar
being permitted to field calls. Although he was nervous, William believed that his training
5
Travelink
Solutions
sessions had been effective in transferring the needed knowledge, and he passed the exam with
flying colours. Out of his training group of twelve, two people needed to rewrite the exam before
receiving a desk within the call center, one week later.
The work began:
When he was initially assigned to the phones, William was apprehensive. He often consulted on-
line and paper manuals, to ensure that he was providing callers with the proper information and
advice. For the first few weeks, Luther and Marie were available on the floor to answer trainee
questions that arose. Beyond the presence of the trainers, team leaders encouraged new
employees to discuss any questions or concerns with experienced associates. William was
Marie’s comments during the training session concerning the importance of the services that call
center employees provided to customers proved true. Offering assistance to distressed travelers
was quite satisfying. William deepened his familiarity with policy details and advisory support
materials to ensure that he was providing callers with the correct information, useful advice and
effective service. Of course, there were occasional complaints and angry callers who vented their
unhappiness with the quality of service (e.g., tow truck operators who were slow to respond or
rude) or the answers they received concerning whether or not they were eligible for the requested
coverage. William quickly learned that it was not helpful to dwell on such calls. Instead, through
6
Travelink
Solutions
The changes:
After about five months of employment, William began to notice changes in his workplace. For
example, senior managers were voicing concerns related to the need for greater efficiency and
new business and greater efficiency0 at the monthly company meetings and team leaders
seemed more stressed than had been the case earlier. Robert, the marketing manager and
William’s friend, explained to William that Travelink had ramped up its staff levels within the
William was shocked by Robert’s candid comments. Sure, the phones had been unusually quiet
lately, but this was also May, a month in which clients were no longer faced with the harsh
winter elements that breed traffic accidents and mechanical breakdown. May was also a month in
which vacation travel was typically down, resulting in fewer travel-related emergencies. Was this
not a time when the phones were supposed to be quieter, allowing staff to follow up on the
claims that had arisen earlier?
Within the next four weeks, four of the people who had trained with William left the firm. In
their places were empty cubicles. Every time an employee was laid off or quit, the human
resources department would send an email to all employees, notifying them of the person’s
departure. For example, one day William came into work to find that Linda, a friendly woman
who sat in the cubicle next to him, was no longer there. Within two hours, he received a
A new assignment:
But William did not go missing. One afternoon in June, he was surprised to find that his
employment situation was about to change for the better. He was invited by his team leader and
7
Travelink
Solutions
the Director of Information Technology to participate in the “Datasmart” project, as the
individual who would be in charge of drafting and editing the standardized company
correspondence forms that would be used by employees in Canada. He would be entering these
documents into a new corporate database that was under development. He was excited over the
opportunity to advance within the company and use some of the writing skills he’d developed at
university. As part of his new assignment, William was offered a pay increase that would kick in
after his next performance review which he anticipated would be held within a few weeks. He
was given a quiet workspace away from the call centre where he could concentrate on his writing
and editing tasks.
All members of the ten person Datasmart project team seemed to be very busy with the
components that they were individually responsible for. However, William could not help but
feel somewhat out on a limb as he revised and rewrote company correspondence and related
required documentation. People were using his revisions, but had he understood the implications
of the wording and made the right changes? He was concerned that one day, he would be
terminated as the result of something he had written that opened the firm to unanticipated
8
Travelink
Solutions
money trying to implement Datasmart. However, the launch date for this software solution had
come and gone on at least three separate occasions. Each time that Travelink appeared ready to
go live with the new software, an email would come out, advising that the launch would be
postponed to a later time. The emails that William received, as a member of the project team,
suggested that both the US and Canadian offices were confused about implementation problems,
and what the firm now needed to do to fix them. Eventually, no new emails concerning the
release date for Datasmart were sent out. It seemed as if the entire Datasmart initiative had
disappeared.
Frustrations deepen:
William had still not received his performance review and promised raise by the middle of
September. The Travelink Solutions employee handbook stated that each call center associate
would receive an appraisal review after six months of continuous employment. Once a successful
review was completed, an employee would be entitled to a pay increase. William had checked
with the remaining members of his training group and none had been approached yet, regarding
9
Travelink
Solutions
William had received no recognition, no review, and no raise, despite his attempts to remind his
supervisors that such a review was long overdue. There had been consistent supervisory
comments that he was doing a terrific job and that the performance review would be looked after
soon. However, managers were very busy and nothing was ever scheduled.
By October, William’s correspondence and documents project was three quarters of the way to
completion, but the phones in the call center were busy again…very busy! Robert told William
that Travelink had been successful in winning two new major contracts. While management was
thrilled to have obtained the new business, Robert was apprehensive. As a marketing manager,
Robert’s prophecy became a nightmare for the employees within the call center over the next
few months. The phones started ringing and there were simply not enough hands to pick them up
(see Exhibit 3 for call center volumes). In addition to the spikes in call volume generated from
the new contracts, Travelink was now entering its busier season. Just a few months ago, the
phones had been relatively quiet – to the extent that employees often found time in between calls
to provide extra service steps for their clients, such as arranging billing for insured expenses or
expediting alternative hotel and flight arrangements. Now, there was no time between calls.
10
Travelink
Solutions
empty desk that Linda used to occupy. Marie was sitting directly behind him. As he looked
around the office, William realized that other staff members were also in the call center,
answering calls. When asked why he was there, Luther simply shook his head in disgust and said:
“I worked here and earned my way to a training position. Now, I’m back where I started.” Marie
overheard the conversation with Luther and simply threw her arms up in frustration when
William nodded to her. All available hands were now busy answering calls rather than providing
their usual support services.
By mid February, customers’ hold times had increased from five minutes to, at times, thirty
minutes or more. As Robert confided, it was not uncommon to have customers waiting on hold
for an hour. On one occasion, William talked to a man who had been on hold for two hours,
waiting for someone to arrange for a tow truck. Team leaders sent out emails that reminded
agents to apologize to customers who were required to wait for periods of twenty minutes or
The lack of appropriate planning and implementation related to heightened call volumes was
having a visible, negative impact on the performance of all call center associates. For example,
anytime that an agent logged off the phone to document a call, they were required to go on “not
ready” status. This status was employed in order to write the required case notes into the
Travelink database. According to the employee manual, agents were allowed to go on “not
ready” for an hour each day, in addition to scheduled break times. With so many calls flowing
11
Travelink
Solutions
Eventually, team leaders stopped using emails to ask agents to log in and began phoning their
direct extensions every time they were not prepared to take a call. On one occasion, William
received a call from his team leader asking him to log in while he was documenting a call that he
had received from an elderly couple that had been in an automobile accident in Mexico. From
that point on, he attempted to type his notes for one case while he was on the phone with the next
client. He questioned the efficacy of the new shortcuts that he was employing, but there was
Travelink began to actively recruit new phone agents in January, with the first ones arriving in
the call center on February 1
st
. Melanie, a new agent, moved into the empty desk in front of
William. She was friendly and a hard worker, but she noted that she was feeling overwhelmed
and ill prepared. She explained that some of the new employees were being hired on a
contractual basis and that her contract was for a period of three months. William could not
understand the rationale behind hiring new employees on a contractual basis. After all, call
center employees had just been informed that they would now be taking all of the incoming
Marketing Manager Robert was distressed by the fallout that had occurred from the growing call
volume and lack of properly trained customer service agents. As he explained to William, some
of the companies which had placed their customer service contracts with Travelink Solutions call
centre were now threatening to pull their contracts because Travelink was not honoring its
service delivery promises. The operations department noted that 10% of all calls were now being
lost due to the lengthy response time. In other words, 10% of all customers were not getting
through to a representative, even though this might be a time of great need.
12
Travelink
Solutions
Considering his alternatives:
One evening in early April, William sat down to consider his future with Travelink Solutions.
He was thankful for the training and job experience that he had received – competencies that
would undoubtedly be useful in many other positions – but he was unsure how much more
turmoil he could endure. He had saved enough money to, at the very least, pull himself through
until a better opportunity came along. One thing seemed certain: Travelink Solutions no longer
fit well with William’s goals.
William, however, bit his tongue and paused: should he ask his team leader to read William’s
documentation of the call center’s problems? Might William ask his friend Robert, in his role as
Marketing Manager, to join the conversation with his team leader and himself and devise a plan
to improve the situation in the call center and the larger office? How might they bring about
significant change in a company’s branch office? Did the branch office need the leadership,
approval, and guidance of top-level executives in the headquarters office?
As his team leader waited, William knew that he needed to decide quickly.
13
Travelink
Solutions
Exhibit 1
Travelink Solutions Compensation Package for Fulltime Customer Service Representatives
Salary $13 per hour or $27,040 to start, progressing to $18 per hour or $37,440 after
2 years (performance reviewed every 6 months)
Performance Bonus Up to a 5% bonus in available to individual representatives, on an annual
basis, based upon individual and corporate performance
Salary Review Every 6 months until staff reaches the maximum for their pay category. After
that, salary is reviewed annually
Benefits A comprehensive benefit package, including dental, eye care, drugs, extended
health, and insurance
14
Travelink
Solutions
Exhibit 2:
Partial Organization Chart for the Canadian Operations
15
Travelink
Solutions
Exhibit 3: Call Center Call Volumes by Month
Assumptions:
• Call staff answering norms are 15 minutes per call or 26 calls per 8 hour shift (1 hour is
allocated for post call documentation and follow-up work + two 15 minute breaks)
• It takes approximately 2 months (1 month of training and 1 month on the phones) before
an operator is fully able to operate at capacity, handling both direct customer contact and
call documentation with < 1% error rate
Jan Feb Mar Apr May June July Aug Sept Oct Nov Dec Jan Feb Mar
Call
Volume
48.6
000
48.6
000
47
000
44.3
000
40
000
36.2
000
35
000
33.2
000
33
000
40.7
000
42.9
000
46.7
000
52.9
000
56.5
000
57.2
000
Wait
<2
<3
<2
<1
<1
<1
<1
<1
<1
6
6
9
10
11
12
16
Travelink
Solutions
Exhibit 4: Turnover Data by Quarter and With the Year End Total
Jan-Mar
04
Mar-May
04
June-Aug
04
Sept-Dec
04
Year 04
12 Month
Summary
Jan-Mar 05
Absenteeism 3%
2%
3%
6%
3.6%
8.3%
a) Quits 0
2
5
10
17
19
b) Layoffs 0
0
16
0
16
0
c) Dismissals 0
1
1
2
4
0