Home | Business News | Browse by Publication | B | Business Travel News

Gilligan: follow the service.

Article Excerpt
Having moved to London at the start of the year to pursue a more global approach to the American Express commercial card and travel business, group president Ed Gilligan was back in New York last month as a visitor. BTN editor David Meyer took the opportunity to meet with him to discuss the development of the online channel, the company's focus on its largest customers and its prospects for future growth.

BTN: Now that there are businesses willing to use offshore agents, such as those based in India, are you seeing a rise in demand from companies to adopt a "follow the sun" approach?

Ed Gilligan: The question is, can you gel consistent quality in service by going that route. We've had a call center in India serving international clients for lout or live years, but even though they have a talented workforce of well educated, cheaper labor, it takes time to build the local management talent to handle a great deal of volume.

The question is, will the growth of online cause us to close down call centers? Going online may be better than following the sun, although we do have several clients pursuing it. In the last quarter, the percentage of our transactions that are online reached 10 percent in the United Kingdom. That's a veal milestone and establishes the United Kingdom...

View this article FREE - Now for a Limited Time, try Goliath Business News
Free for 3 Days!