Sad Report: Hyatt Outsources Call Center, Fires US Phone Support Agents

Hyatt has reportedly terminated hundreds of its remaining US-based call center agents, moving their jobs to El Salvador and the Philippines. That explains a recent call to make a date change to a reservation that left me scratching my head.

Hyatt Outsources Call Center

I recently picked up the phone to make a simple date change to an upcoming Hyatt reservation. I was unable to change online, which is a regular issue with Hyatt (it has always been weak on the tech side). An agent in the Philippines answered. While he was very courteous, it took far too long to do a date change that should have been near-instant.

I was put on hold during the call while he “looked up the hotel’s cancellation” policy and then came back and told me that I was allowed to change my date (no kidding…) and if I wanted to proceed. I felt like saying, “No, I just called you because I’m lonely.” He put me on hold again before finally coming back and saying the change was made.

After more than a decade of being a Diamond or Globalist (the top tier in the World of Hyatt program), this year I’ve dropped a level to Explorist and I figured that Hyatt (perhaps always?) outsourced its call center for its non-Globalist members.

But View From The Wing reports that Hyatt laid off almost all of its remaining US call center agents last week. Over the last eight months, Hyatt has eliminated the vast majority of US-based call center and support agents, moving these call centers to El Salvador and the Philippines.

Only about 35 US call center agents remain and these agents will handle Concierge duties for Globalist members and escalated customer service issues. The remaining agents will work remotely.

Call Center Agents Tell Stories

On reddit, (now former) call center agents have shared how it went down:

I went from joining a zoom call with the director of my team, to being forced to turn on my camera, to being told I was laid off effective literally immediately, to then having an HR rep say “you’re going to need to take notes now”, to me just saying. I’m sure all of this info is going to be in an email you’ll be sending to my personal address so please can I get off this call now?”

They literally shoved me out the door, sat there staring at me as I was crying and humiliated and confused. Then the realization hit me — how am I going to pay for my mortgage? Health Insurance? ETc. All while the HR rep and the temporary director of my team sat there in silence.

…a 5 minute zoom to lay us off with literally NO advance warning or foreshadowing. They literally said your Hyatt email is going to deactivate in about an hour.

Yikes. How unprofessional. Or this one:

It’s incredibly annoying to be constantly told how much Hyatt Cares then to be faced with this. At the summit meetings a few months ago we were assured our positions were safe, and that we would be working with the foreign call centers. They would work the hours that we were closed.

However in checking my emails on the way out I noticed that we received one where Teleperformance was noted, and that they planned to open up a team in El Salvador on November 18th. Seems like that all worked out fine for them, and they sent out the emails meeting invites by the end of the day to fire us.

So during my shift I get a notice that I have an important meeting scheduled the next day (my day off) at 9:00 am and not to share this info. (It was at this point the panic set in) …

The meeting to lay us off was so unprofessional. People couldn’t get in, or they were unaware they had been scheduled. I had one person resort to calling me on teams to find out what was going on, and frankly she deserved to hear that from her employer not a coworker. It was just them blandly telling us “how hard this is for them” and that we no longer have jobs. I’m sorry but the alligator tears are just too much.

I don’t know about y’all, but every day I had at least one person tell me how thankful they were that English was my first language, or that I wasn’t AI when calling in, usually with less kind words but you get the drift. I can see how moving the call centers is in the best interest of the shareholders, but it’s definitely not in the best interest of the guests.

I’m upset because I feel like I was misled about the security of my job. My fears had directly been addressed at an in person summit and I was told not to worry. I received a promotion and consistently had fantastic scores on my calls. My feedback from guests included compliments such as “her kindness almost made me cry” and I thought I was doing this for a company who would at least care enough about me to fire me in a compassionate way, instead of a bungled teams meeting.

If Hyatt deliberately misled these folks, my respect for the company just went way down.

My Thoughts

There is always lament for those who lose their livelihoods, and I feel particularly sad for those employees who were given virtually no notice before being terminated. What kind of cruel employer gives one hour’s notice, even with a small severance package?

And talk about inefficient…my phone call anecdote above is a pervasive problem with outsourced call centers.  When Hyatt can pay these workers in a month what it pays its US-based agents in less than a week, the financial motives are clear, but not sufficiently training them is unacceptable.

While Hyatt trying to maximize profits is hardly a surprise, I think it is going about it the wrong way.

CONCLUSION

Hyatt has reportedly laid off its remaining call center agents, leaving a small team of just 35 agents to handle VIP guests and escalated cases. This is very sad news not only for the employees who lost their jobs, but for all Hyatt guests who will not have to endure the inefficiencies almost inherent in an overseas call center.

image: Hyatt