Company: Fareportal
Company Description: Fareportal is a travel technology company that powers hybrid (online/traditional) travel agencies, such as #3 CheapOair and #7 OneTravel. Utilizing its innovative technology and company owned and operated contact centers, Fareportal has forged strong industry partnerships with over 450 airlines, 150,000 hotels and 100s of car rental companies to serve millions of customers every year.
Nomination Category: Customer Service Categories
Nomination Sub Category: Customer Service Department of the Year

Nomination Title: CheapOair customer service department

Tell the story about what this nominated organization/department has achieved since January 1, 2014 (up to 650 words). Focus on specific accomplishments, and relate these accomplishments to past performance or industry norms.

Fareportal is one of the fastest-growing travel companies in the world. With more than 2,500 employees, Fareportal powers CheapOair, the #3 biggest travel site behind brands such as Expedia/Orbitz and Priceline. Originally founded as a travel agency in New Jersey in 1976 with first online bookings on CheapOair in 2005, what sets Fareportal apart today:  

1. Wholly owned call centers: Fareportal is the only online travel company which owns all of its contact centers and employs each of its contact center agents. 

2. Hybrid model: As a result, travelers not only have the online site and mobile app at their disposal, but a highly trained and dedicated team of certified travel agents available 24/7 by phone and live chat. 
 
CheapOair’s customer service department was recently named winner in ‘Customer Focused Innovations of the Year’ category – as well as a finalist in the ‘Contact Center of the Year’ category – in 7th annual International Service Excellence Awards, organized by the Customer Service Institute of America and International Council of Customer Service Organizations. The department also won gold in Award for Innovation in Customer Service category in Stevie Awards for Sales and Customer Service in February 2015.  
 
CheapOair’s unique high-touch / high-tech offering in the travel industry and its focus on contact center excellence are key to its business success, with several contact center achievements in last year alone:  

1. CheapOair customer service receives more than 22,000 calls a day and more than 1,500 trips are booked through the department alone every week. 

2. CheapOair employs more than 1,500 customer service employees, between 7 contact centers in 5 countries. CheapOair’s contact centers range from 30 employees in Canada to 900 in India. More than 150 agents are hired each month, for a global employee growth of 414% during the past 6 years.  

3. CheapOair maintains global attrition under 5% annually – an unprecedented low percentage in light of average rates of 15% in the U.S. and more than 30% in India. This is due to several factors, including: 
• extensive training, focus on long-term development and long tenure, 
• full ownership of all large contact center buildings in India, which sends a clear message of long-term location commitment to employees 

4. Customer service department continues to excel: Year-over-year calls received improved by 22% in 2014, while calls abandoned decreased by 5%, resulting in 23% improvement in call abandonment rates.  

5. Customer service leaders are veterans with 30+ years of experience, not afraid to pick up the call themselves. Part of employee training is listening to their leaders handle customer calls. Leaders also give customers their cell phone numbers and encourage direct inquiries to make sure customers are happy. 

6. While all employees are trained in first call resolution and first call resolution rates are impressively high at 95%, the department is otherwise divided into tier 1/2/3 response systems. Additional innovations include: 
• Specialty teams, trained in solving specific, complex issues,  
• Proprietary online platform to track all customer issues, 24/7,  
• 100% neutral agents, recommending the best deals, regardless of the airline.  

7. CheapOair is the only travel agency to have a special refund fund to offer refunds to customers, whose refund requests have been denied, for a variety of reasons, by the airlines themselves. We stand behind our customer service and our promise to customers – this is unheard of in any other online travel agencies. 

8. In a recent Google survey, 13% of CheapOair customers said they are brand ambassadors that love the brand and would defend it no matter what. Google said that the typical numbers for most admired companies – even ones like Disney – are 3-4%. 

9. CheapOair has the highest percentage of happy customers. Top10Reviews published a Top 10 Online Travel Sites comparison, where CheapOair was the only online travel site with a perfect, 10 out of 10, score for help and support. TrustPilot also offers CheapOair a very high online customer ranking of 9 out of 10.

In bullet-list form, briefly summarize up to ten (10) accomplishments of the nominated department since the beginning of 2014 (up to 150 words).

1. CheapOair’s customer service department was recently named winner in ‘Customer Focused Innovations of the Year’ category – as well as a finalist in the ‘Contact Center of the Year’ category – in 7th annual International Service Excellence Awards, organized by the Customer Service Institute of America and International Council of Customer Service Organizations. 

2. The department also won gold in Award for Innovation in Customer Service category in Stevie Awards for Sales and Customer Service in February 2015. 

3. Top10Reviews published a Top 10 Online Travel Sites comparison, where CheapOair was the only online travel site with a perfect, 10 out of 10, score for help and support.

4. TrustPilot also offers CheapOair a very high online customer service satisfaction ranking of 9 out of 10 and recently gave CheapOair its TrustPilot award.

5. Better Business Bureau offers an A+ rating.