Delta No Longer Outsourcing

Delta Air Lines announced on Thursday that after years of complaints from customers preferring to speak to U.S.-based staff, they are no longer outsourcing calls to India.

Customer calls were no longer forwarded to India as of the first quarter of this year. Foreign call centers remain in Jamaica and South Africa, though staffing at those locations likely will be reduced in the future. We’ve dealt with the Indian and South African call centers, and found them inadequately trained, and the agents at this call centers referred to with disdain by their American counterparts for this.

Delta is not the only airline that has restored U.S. based service, in 2001, United Airlines outsourced some reservation calls to India. A United spokeswoman said Friday that some of the call center work the airline was outsourcing to India has been brought back to the U.S., though some reservation calls are still forwarded there.

As we always say on the subject, our issue with outsourced call centers is the quality of the work. While we disapprove of sending jobs out of the U.S., we would accept it if the quality was equivalent. In the case of these organizations, Delta was not getting its money worth. We did not succeed in a call to Delta in the past few years that did not have agents unfamiiar with the basic points of their job.

So, welcome back to the new Delta. Where hopefully now, you can get a qualified representative who will stand ready to assist you.