How can the world’s airlines and channels find help from ATPCO to cope with today’s situation? Here are some insights from ATPCO’s Director of Customer Service Joanna Bryant.
Welcome to the third episode of the five-part series, where you will hear from our industry experts on handling the effects of current market conditions.
In this interview you will learn about the many ways our experienced agents can personally help you with fare filing, audit, and data analysis tasks—no matter how big or how small.
Transcript
Welcome to the third episode of the expert's vlog series, COVID-19 edition and virtual edition, where we interview ATPCO experts for their unique perspective on industry challenges.
I'm Andrea Bonaiuto, ATPCO vlog host joining from New York City, and with me today is Joanna Bryant, Director of Customer Service at ATPCO. Joanna's vast experience supporting ATPCO customers has made her an expert of ATPCO solutions as well as appreciated by all in the industry. We're excited to have her here today calling in from the Washington, DC, area.
Welcome, Joanna.
Thank you, Andrea.
Now, Joanna, in a previous episode where we interviewed Chris Phillips, Head of Global Accounts at ATPCO, Chris mentioned that due to COVID-19 circumstances the fare-related data volume that flows through ATPCO systems tripled at its peak. Nevertheless, ATPCO is able to maintain its 99.9% data distribution reliability. What was this peak volume experience like for the Customer Service teams?
Well, although no one could have predicted the situation our industry was faced with, ATPCO's Customer Service team has always been prepared to support our customers at a time of need.
We're very fortunate to have highly skilled and experienced team members with an average of 15 years plus industry experience in our three regional offices: Washington, London, and Singapore.
In the past few months, we've seen a decline in data input requests, but we have seen an increase in the need for support in how to file complex data. Issues like automated reissues, reservation booking code designators, service fees, etc., which of course we're always happy to help our customers with.
That's fantastic. Knowing that airlines are not currently operating at full capacity, are there any additional services or support that our customers can use right now that perhaps they might not be as familiar with?
Yes. In addition to our traditional data input service, coding assistance, and resolving problems, we offer a variety of other services such as data and tariff validations.This includes such things as creating new passenger type codes, fare type codes, changing or adding new airport and city codes, or simply adding an airline to an existing or a new tariff.
Customer Service can also provide data reports. Since we have full access to our database of fares, rules, and associated filings, we can provide customers with data reports that may aid in new pricing strategies such as those related to COVID-19 recovery. Depending on the complexity and the volume of those types of reports, there may be some fees associated to them, so please contact us for details.
We offer audit services so if an airline needs a second set of eyes to review what they've coded to ensure accuracy or correct application, our Customer Service staff can help out with that.
We also provide access to a number of subject-matter experts. We have experts in an array of ATPCO products and services such as invoice Express, Database Summary, Negotiated Fares, Service Fees, Retailing solutions, so no matter how big or small the need is, we encourage customers to reach out to us.
That's wonderful, thank you. And what is the best way for our global customers to quickly connect and get the support they need?
Well, there are several ways to reach Customer Service.
We have a support tool which is available on our FareManager home page and the Customer Center so by simply clicking on that, a customer can open a ticket to Customer Service and an agent will get back to them as soon as possible.
We have live chat, which is also available on our Support tool and here you can actually chat with a live agent on any type of support need you may have.
And of course, there's our call center which will put you in touch directly with a highly experienced agent around the clock from our Washington, London, or Singapore offices.
Fantastic! Thank you so much, Joanna.
And to everyone watching, we'd love to stay connected. Reach out to us with any questions, like Joanna mentioned, and visit ATPCO's Customer Center for more learning resources.
Stay tuned for the next episode and of course, stay safe.
