Corporate Travel Group Redeploys Remote Call Center Agents for COVID-19 Advice

The global COVID-19 pandemic is wreaking havoc on many industries, not least among them the travel industry, which is suffering from the collapse in air travel for both business and pleasure. Experts say that when Americans do begin to travel, they will likely do it in the form of road trips.

"There is this pent-up demand for travel," Amir Eylon, president and CEO of Longwoods International, a tourism market research consultancy, told CNN Business. "What you're first going to see is day trips, [people] going wherever [they] can get to in a couple hours and coming back home that day."

In the longer term, people may begin to travel further afield, but the trips will still likely be conducted by automobile. So where does that leave travel planners? After all, few people consult with travel agents to plan road trips.

Some travel companies are making the most of the assets they have: employees skilled in remote call center support. Travel Leaders Corporate, a corporate travel management company, recently announced that it’s redeploying its experienced corporate travel advisors to help New York State residents by scheduling COVID-19 testing in New York. To accomplish this, the company has partnered with remote call center services provider AnswerNet (News - Alert). It’s an effort to keep more people on the payroll until the travel industry returns to normal.

“Our corporate travel advisors are an extraordinary group of highly-trained customer service professionals who wanted to find additional ways to assist during this pandemic,” said Gabe Rizzi, President and Chief Sales Officer of Travel Leaders Corporate. “Business travel has slowed considerably due to COVID-19. Rather than furloughing our advisors, we found a great partner with AnswerNet.”

Travel Leaders Corporate has workers already in place who are trained to provide high-level customer service from remote locations. One of the biggest drawbacks to ramping up a remote-work call center quickly is workers who lack the right Internet connectivity, hardware, headsets, and skills to work remotely.

“It was important to us at Travel Leaders Corporate to keep our employees on the payroll, so we were fortunate to find this opportunity where they can have this option to assist in a different industry and continue their jobs,” added Rizzi. “We are proud that they can use their skills to help New York and New Yorkers recover from the current situation. To step up to learn new skills and help others when they face the catastrophic impact on their own business lives, shows true dedication and caring for others,” Rizzi said.

Edited by Maurice Nagle