Six Months in a Flash
14 years ago
Sunday, February 15, 2009
Business Correspondence Critique
Subject: New Call Centre Up and Running on 15 February 2009
Dear (Name),
We acknowledge the numerous complaints by frustrated guests trying to reach on our Call Centre for assistance.
Further to my note in October 2008 on our Call Centre upgrading and our interim measures to assist you, I am pleased to update you now that AirAsia is presently building a world-class integrated Call Centre in Kuala Lumpur for all our country operations – Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, Australia, Brunei, Cambodia, China, India, Laos, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Vietnam and the UK – that will be capable of dealing with any crisis situation.
You will start enjoying this enhanced service when the new Call Centre is fully completed by 15 February 2009. As we are presently undergoing migration, our Call Centre is operating with limitations and thus you may find the lines to be heavily congested. On average we receive a total of 15,000 calls a day so I would really appreciate it if you could try not to call our Call Centre for the next 6 weeks while we are ramping up.
I strongly encourage you to utilize our website AirAsia.com where you can perform a whole host of Tasks and Transactions relating to your to your flight bookings. You can also make holiday and hotel reservations online! Remember to register as a user and things will be even easier! You can also check out our comprehensive FAQ section where you can find answers to almost all your questions.
• Checking the Status of Your Online Booking
If you'd like to view the status of flight bookings that you've made in the past 3 days (credit card payment only) logon to Status of Online Bookings on Manage Your Booking.
• Checking the Status of Your Go Holiday Reservation
Logon to goholiday.airasia.com and click on the Check Booking link on the main page; from here you will be able to check the status of your Go Holiday reservation. If you have further questions on Go Holiday reservations, check the Go Holiday FAQ for detailed information.
• Changing Your Flight Dates
If you'd like to postpone or bring your flight forward, login to View/Change Bookings on the Manage Your Booking. Please bear in mind that changes are not allowed if made less than 48 hours prior to the scheduled departure time. Guests will need to bear the price differences if a higher fare is chosen.
• Changing Passenger Names
Please visit our Sales Office or Airport Sales Counter at least 6 hours before the scheduled flight departure time with proof of identity for both the substitute and original guest. Please note that name change is subject to a fee as provided in the fee schedule and is only available for certain fare classes only.
• On Time Guarantee Claims
Guests who would like to claim their On Time Guarantee compensation can do so by filling up the On Time Guarantee Claim Form.
• Checking the Status of Lost Baggage
Lost your baggage recently? You can check the Baggage Tracking Service section on Manage Your Booking for details on the status of your lost baggage.
• Checking Your Refund Status
To check the status of your refunds, click on our Refund Status on Manage Your Booking (for credit card payments only) Please allow for a processing gap of 24-hours after your refund has been issued before checking on this application.
Our continuous improvements on the website will enable you to do even more things online in the future. We acknowledge that technology will cost us more but at the same time we are committed to giving you excellent service.
We sincerely apologise for the frustrations caused by our Call Centre congestions. I assure you that you will have a whole new experience with our new international Call Centre when it’s up and running in 6 weeks.
Till then, here's wishing everyone Happy New Year 2009.
Best regards,
Tony Fernandes
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This is an email sent by AirAsia to my sister few days ago. They kept my sister’s email as she booked a ticket online last year.
Basically, it was written in ‘courteous’ way throughout the email. They greeted customer's name in the salutation. This would make customer feels that they are friendly. Besides, they also apologized sincerely for their call centre congestions. However, it could be better if they apologized in the first or second paragraph.
Secondly, this email also fulfills the ‘clarity’ in the 7Cs writing principles. They explained the issue, problem, cause and solutions. Meanwhile they fulfill ‘concreteness’ and ‘completeness’ as the website links and the steps of checking status and other requests were included. Nevertheless, the links (bold texts under bulleted point) which function normally in their website cannot be used in the email.
In addition, the subject did not mention about the company name.The position of the author at the last part of this email was not stated as well. It would be clearer to the customer if they are included. The bulleted points with suitable headings were also used in this long email. It facilitates the recipients to read. However, in my opinion, this email is too long. The recipients may not have the patience to read through it. Since they had provided the website link, the bulleted point contents can be eliminated in the email.
Overall, I think that this is an informative email conveying the customers effectively about the new call centre issue, problems and solutions.
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I agree with you that they should apologize first, especially since they already acknowledged the problem on paragraph 1. Not doing so would seem insincere.
ReplyDeleteLike you pointed out, the e-mail provides information in a clear way, in terms of paragraphing and provides the necessary information to users.
I also concur that the letter appears too long and a simple link to the website would suffice. However, this would require the website to have catching designs to tell the users of the new features. Mr. Fernandes should have also stated his post.
Does this e-mail comes with a company logo on the top? If it does, then I suppose it is already clear to the reader that the company is Airasia. Thus I would think that having the company's name on the subject line is not necessary. However, I do think that having the company's name on the subject line as it appears on the inbox is important.
Overall, i agree with you that this letter is not concise enough but it gives a very clear message to the customers about what's going on to the new service. However, I don't think customer will have the patience or time to read through every detail in the email. Nevertheless this author is wise as he listed out the details in bullet point form and bold those main points to draw readers' attention. In this case, customers only need to focus on the bolded main point.
ReplyDeleteApart from that, I also agree with your point that the tone expressed by the author is courteous and sincere. This gives customers good impression to this company even if there are some inconvenience incurred along with the commencement of the new service. The message written is also encouraging and makes the customers feel like to enjoy the new service as soon as possible as it sounds great through the author's tone.
Lastly, I suggest that the author to include his post in the company below his name at the end of the letter.
Hi Jackson
ReplyDeleteThe company's logo do appear on the top of the email. I agree with you that it is redundant to include the company's name in the subject line in this case. Thanks for point out this =)
I think it's unusual for a company to admit a shortcoming as this writer does in his introduction because of maintenance of image but for the reader, at least he gets straight to the point.
ReplyDeleteI think the tone is polite but a bit chatty eg so I would really appreciate it.......ramping up. I think he should be more apologetic for not being able to offer normal service.
Mrs Richardson