MINNEAPOLIS -- Carlson Wagonlit Travel is moving hundreds of
millions of dollars in business to large call centers and phasing
out many on-site travel offices, Travel Weekly learned.
Corporate travel clients, for the most part, increasingly will
share the services of Carlson Wagonlit agents and lose much of the
personal attention they have become accustomed to. In return they
will get more attractive fee arrangements.
The move recognizes the new realities of travel distribution.
Agencies can no longer live off the meager commissions paid by the
airline industry and offer the same level of service to their
clients.
"Every agency, in order to compete and have a role in this
[environment], is going to have to change very substantially from
what it has been," said Ron Merriman, executive vice president,
North America Carlson Wagonlit Travel.
The moves at Carlson Wagonlit come at a time when rival American
Express is developing a "shared services" model for servicing large
corporate accounts, and Atlanta-based WorldTravel Partners has
restructured its executive staff.
From a technological standpoint, Carlson is doing two things.
The agency opened a call center system that can service accounts
from anywhere, any time of the day. The agency also developed an
interface that will enable agents to book travel on any CRS
platform, without needing familiarity with a particular CRS.
Carlson can direct bookings through any CRS "depending on the
needs of the client and our needs," officials said.
The technology, developed by a firm called TSS, enables the
agency to shift business from one center to another depending on
the ebbs and flows of call volume. For some clients, the monthly
changes in call volume can shift about 40%. The interface is
essentially a window over the distribution system so agents can
book travel on different CRS systems using the same keystrokes. If
one corporate account uses Sabre for example, an agent proficient
in another CRS can make the booking without thumbing through an
instruction manual.
"When you have one client that's got a spurt in volume and
another that has a decrease in volume, you'd like to hope they both
are on Apollo platforms," Merriman said.
Carlson is building five call centers around the U.S. comprising
250 to 400 agents each. The first center is in Mendota Heights,
Minn. Other sites are in Rolling Meadow, Ill.; Bedford, Texas;
Denver, and Manchester, Ct. The call centers will be staffed in
shifts so that a booking can be made any day, any time.
By the first quarter 2001, Carlson plans to have centers in
overseas locations.
Carlson officials said the agency lost some smaller accounts
because of the move. The changes also forced some staff cuts.