New routes mean recruitment drive for airline call centre
WITH six more routes this year, Emirates Airline has begun hiring at its call centre in Wilmslow to increase staff numbers by 60 to 300.
Now 10 years old, the call centre handles queries in 20-plus languages and it is seeking more Spanish, Dutch and Czech speakers. Staff marked the anniversary by wearing national costumes.
The expansion, says Emirates, follows the airline’s planned launch of new services from Amsterdam, Prague and Madrid, as well as its growing popularity in the UK.
Since opening in March 2000, with 50 staff, the call centre has taken more than 10m calls.
It is headed by Paul Henderson-Spoors, contact centre manager – Europe, who joined Emirates in November 2005 after three years running UK and Indian call centres for United Utilities.
Before then, he managed Vodafone’s UK contact centres for contract phones for two years and prior to that he was with BMI British Midland for 11 years where he ran the airline’s European contact centres.
Emirates’ area manager UK north, Laurie Berryman, said: “We have a locally-sourced United Nations of talent at our customers’ disposal at the contact centre and are proud that we have been able to grow the business and offer more opportunities for talented linguists.
“We never ceased to be amazed at the number of multi-lingual people available to us in the Greater Manchester area. Just when we think we may face a challenge finding speakers of a particular language, the applications come flooding in – there are more Czech speakers in the Manchester area than you might think.”
Emirates operates 14 daily non-stop flights from the UK to Dubai and onwards to worldwide destinations including Australia, South Africa, the Indian sub-continent and Far East. In addition to twice-daily services from Manchester, it flies from Heathrow (five times daily), Gatwick (three times daily), Birmingham (twice daily), plus Newcastle and Glasgow (daily).
Emirates call centre fact file
Agent positions
200
Agents 230,
plus managers and support staff
Opening hours
7.30am-8.30pm, year-round
Number of lines
120 (inbound)
Numbers in use
0844 range
ACD Alcatel
Wallboards
Symon
Headsets
Plantronics
PCs Acer
Software
Windows XP; Microsoft Office; and Emirates’ bespoke systems: EasyMars GUI for
reservations and KRIS for its frequent flyer programme, Skywards
CLI, CTI, etc
Global Connect (later this year) will introduce the use of Genesys software with
enhanced ability to recognize customers through CLI, CTI, etc
Telecoms carrier
British Telecom
Inbound calls
monthly average of 80,000-125,000
The 10th anniversary of Emirates’ call centre is marked with a plaque (background). With birthday cake (from left): Laurie Berryman, manager, UK north; Paul Henderson-Spoors, contact centre manager –Europe; Salem Obaidalla, senior vice president, commercial operations, Europe; and Conrad Clifford, vice president, UK and Ireland