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17 April, 2020

Answering the call – and DMs: Hawaiian Airlines rallies to help guests

As the COVID-19 pandemic abruptly derails vacations, weddings, honeymoons, family reunions, and other Hawaii travel, the team at Hawaiian Airlines has come together to support tens of thousands of guests with their reservations.

In response to a rapid and unprecedented influx of inquiries, Hawaiian Airlines’ IT, customer contacts, project management, and facilities teams worked around the clock to set up a supplemental contact centre at its Honolulu headquarters last month.

In the past several weeks, over 160 employees from across the company – from airport operations and procurement to network planning and executive leadership – have picked up the phone or reached out on social care to more promptly assist guests.

Volunteers have logged an average of 1,730 hours each week answering inquires, messaging guests via text and the airline’s mobile app, replying to emails and assisting with back-office processes.

“It was great to be able to help out on the phones,” Avi Mannis, senior vice president of marketing at Hawaiian Airlines, said after a recent shift.

“A lot of what’s going on right now feels out of our control and we’re spending a lot of time reacting to things that we couldn’t anticipate even a month ago, so there’s something really satisfying – and almost comforting – about assisting with someone’s reservation.”

Kanani Kealoha-Faleafine stepped away from her day job as Hawaiian’s manager of loyalty services to train the carrier’s volunteer force.

As a former reservations manager for over four years, Kealoha-Faleafine had supported Hawaiian Airlines’ contact centres based in the Philippines – where work has also been disrupted due to government-issued orders – and understood the ins and outs of the airline’s systems.

“Even though we’re in uncharted territory, it’s calming to know that employees can still support the company but in our own unique way,” she said.

“My team is teaching new tools to people who have never used our reservation management systems before, so we had to develop a training process where newcomers could feel comfortable and supported before starting to answer calls.”

Kealoha-Falaefine views the contact centre as an inspiring example of Hawaiian employees’ shared commitment to serve guests with hospitality during a stressful time.

“We were all touched by our guests’ stories, such as someone who was supposed to come to Hawaii for their wedding or making a trip to visit their grandkids and reassuring them that we’ll be here for when they’re ready to come,” she said.

Call volumes are still extremely high, but thanks to the help Hawaiian Airlines has received from its ohana, the carrier is working through it and seeing progress each day.

Moving forward and improving

Despite being able to significantly lower contact wait times, an enormous backlog of guest requests remains at Hawaiian Airlines.

The carrier is continuing to invest in capabilities to better manage the volume of requests. For example, its IT teams have launched enhancements to our website and mobile app to allow guests to make changes to their travel, and the airline continues to identify and implement improvements.

Hawaiian Airlines is also working to increase capacity in other contact channels like text messaging, chat and social care, which were temporarily overwhelmed by the influx.

“We know we’ve let our guests down when they needed us the most,” Mannis said. “But it has been heartening to see people from across our company working side by side to make this right and support our guests in a trying time.”

This article has been edited and republished with permission from Hawaiian Airlines. All images were supplied by the airline.

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