Transat hopes that the long waits on the phone to speak to a customer service representative, a problem experienced across the industry, will be a thing of the past at the start of the summer, says its president and chief management, Annick Guérard.
Mme Guérard recognizes that the customer service has not been up to the “outstanding” service that the Montreal tour operator wishes to deliver. “We are improving significantly,” she defended at a press conference on the sidelines of the annual meeting of shareholders on Wednesday. »
With the recovery in demand, the leader believes that the situation will return to normal. “I would say we are getting closer. At the beginning of the summer, if we manage to achieve our employee recruitment objectives, we would most likely be able to return to a normal state, where we respond to our clients, for example, within a minute regularly,” she replies.
The problem is not unique to Transat and affects the entire industry in a pandemic context where air demand was uncertain, underlines the leader. Not only did companies have to reduce the number of their employees, but travelers also faced an uncertain health and regulatory situation from one country to another, which raised many questions. “The customer does not find it, she notes. Traveling is complex. He needs to be reassured. These are volumes [d’appels] that we have never experienced in the past. To reduce the pressure on its service, Transat has developed online tools over the past 12 months so that its customers can make changes to their reservations themselves. She believes that these solutions have made it possible to lighten the workload in call centers.
Customers should also be prepared to pay more for their airfares due to higher fuel prices. The company is adjusting its prices “gradually” to take into account the surge in oil prices.
Despite the war in Ukraine and rising fuel prices, Mme Guérard assured shareholders that the horizon was brighter for the company. “We are now more committed than ever on the slope which will lead us to a volume of activity close to that which we knew before the start of the crisis. The carrier, however, will still need help from the federal government before the application is fully returned.