Three months ago Marriott laid off Ambassador customer service staff as part of customer contact center closures, effectively gutting the personalized nature of the Ambassador program – which still requires customers to spend at least $20,000 annually, even with this year’s reduced elite requirements.
Now Marriott has gone a step further and just announced the closure of two call centers. A spokesperson tells me
Marriott International will be closing two Customer Engagement Center locations later this year, one in San Antonio, Texas, and one in St. Thomas, Ontario, Canada. These closings will affect approximately 480 associates. We will be able to shift some associates to a remote capacity, but we will unfortunately have some job eliminations. Associates whose jobs will be eliminated will receive severance, continued benefits, and other forms of assistance to aid in their career transition.
The St. Thomas, Canada call center, which was inherited from Starwood, is where most of the Twitter team worked. I’m working to find out whether members of the twitter team will be allowed to work remotely, attached to other centers.
Texas was also legacy Starwood, which means their best ambassador service agents. I suspect legacy Marriott workers in Omaha will get the job. As an ambassador elite, right now, if I call, I either get someone in Singapore or China. I can only get an American agent if I call in the middle of the afternoon Eastern time.
More jobs gone for good as they all continue to race for the bottom.
Maybe DJ will buy them and take them into bankruptcy.
@FNT Delta Diamond – Austin is legacy Starwood, but I did not think San Antonio was?
San Anotonio was not Legacy Starwood. Just Austin.
Off topic – https://nypost.com/2020/06/29/high-end-nyc-hotels-not-sanitizing-rooms-changing-sheets/
I don’t understand the strategy of eliminating ambassador service agents if everyone had their status extended for all of 2021. Unless Marriott thinks they can provide the same service for a fraction of the cost by employing call-center workers in Asia. This, of course, is the complete opposite of the trend we’ve seen in the last 5 years. Most of the big U.S. companies have brought back call centers because U.S. customers have pushed back against getting call centers in India.