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NativeSon5859

Conductor
Joined
Aug 6, 2003
Messages
1,057
Location
NOLA
Does anyone know if Amtrak sends its new classes of customer service agents to out-of-state training at a training center like airlines do? I know conductors get sent to Wilmington, correct?

Was mostly just thinking about the new agents that are being brought back in 15 (?) cities...assuming if they are from off the street, they would have to be sent somewhere for training.
 
That's a good question...not sure how it is done, if new agents are hired for location's that have no current agents to train them. I had always worked at larger location's that had experienced agents to "post" with, for on-job-training...
 
One other possibility is to have the regional sales rep come to train the new agent(s) on site...
 
I've experienced excellent service from a number of agents, some who know me by name. That's impressive! And I acknowledge to them an understanding of the frustrations and difficulties they are facing from difficulties caused by the pandemic.

Chances are they won't have answers to questions being asked and we must all have empathy for uncertainties we all face. In general I have found that agents will go out of their way for appreciative customers.
 
Does anyone know if Amtrak sends its new classes of customer service agents to out-of-state training at a training center like airlines do? I know conductors get sent to Wilmington, correct?

Was mostly just thinking about the new agents that are being brought back in 15 (?) cities...assuming if they are from off the street, they would have to be sent somewhere for training.

I can speak from personal experience. I'll do a breakdown of your questions.

No, they don't send the call center reps out of state. They'll only hire local folks who can commute to and from the center.

Yes. Conductors and Engineers, Block Operators, Dispatchers, OBS, etc. Go to Wilmington.

Keep in mind that unless forced by Congress the Philadelphia Call Center is the only Call Center that has Amtrak Unionized Employees. Amtrak hasn't hired anyone for the Philly Call Center since my class of January 2018. The rest of the call center agents are in Florida at an outsourced call center.

I've experienced excellent service from a number of agents, some who know me by name. That's impressive!

Their's a way for them to know whose calling. It's not as impressive as you'd think.
 
I can speak from personal experience. I'll do a breakdown of your questions.

No, they don't send the call center reps out of state. They'll only hire local folks who can commute to and from the center.

Yes. Conductors and Engineers, Block Operators, Dispatchers, OBS, etc. Go to Wilmington.

Keep in mind that unless forced by Congress the Philadelphia Call Center is the only Call Center that has Amtrak Unionized Employees. Amtrak hasn't hired anyone for the Philly Call Center since my class of January 2018. The rest of the call center agents are in Florida at an outsourced call center.



Their's a way for them to know whose calling. It's not as impressive as you'd think.

If you make such a direct statement on this forum you need to support what you are saying. When you say 'there's a way to know who's calling and it's not as impressive as you'd think' I would want to know what you are talking about.

And if they are nice and helpful, and are treating me with respect, I am appreciative to the agent and have no problem.

Please explain your comment.
 
If you make such a direct statement on this forum you need to support what you are saying. When you say 'there's a way to know who's calling and it's not as impressive as you'd think' I would want to know what you are talking about.

And if they are nice and helpful, and are treating me with respect, I am appreciative to the agent and have no problem.

Please explain your comment.

I can't go into details. But trust me, I would know that they know whose calling. If you'd read my comments above my reply to your comment, you would understand why I know. ;)
 
No, they don't send the call center reps out of state. They'll only hire local folks who can commute to and from the center.
I think the OP was actually asking about station agents:
Was mostly just thinking about the new agents that are being brought back in 15 (?) cities.
 
Not sure what the discussion regarding using names is about, but anyone who has a reserved seat or room on Amtrak, has what's known as a "passenger name record", that tells that information. Anyone in a res center, or at a station with access to the Arrow system, can see that. Addressing the passenger by name, is just common and good business practice. When a conductor scans your ticket, I believe they can see it too. And sleeper attendants have a manifest, with everyone's name....
 
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If you make such a direct statement on this forum you need to support what you are saying. When you say 'there's a way to know who's calling and it's not as impressive as you'd think' I would want to know what you are talking about.

And if they are nice and helpful, and are treating me with respect, I am appreciative to the agent and have no problem.

Please explain your comment.
Acela150 knows from experience about what he is talking. I also have personal experience and I agree with Acela150.
 
Acela150 knows from experience about what he is talking. I also have personal experience and I agree with Acela150.
Please disclose this [hidden?] information on what you are talking about...
Their's a way for them to know whose calling. It's not as impressive as you'd think.
Second time I am asking for disclosure of this information.
 
Please disclose this [hidden?] information on what you are talking about...

Second time I am asking for disclosure of this information.
Sometimes information is confidential and is unable to be released. It will not be disclosed to you by Acela150 or me no matter how many times you ask.
 
I can speak from personal experience.

You may have also missed this part. Dude knows what he's talking about.

You can choose to accept his statement at face value or not, but he doesn't owe you (or anyone else) information that he's unable to disclose.

On a completely unrelated note (because I don't have inside information and can't disclose that which I don't know), you've heard of Caller ID, right? If you have your phone number on your AGR profile, it's likely that the agent has your account on the screen in front of them before you ever even hear their voice.

Or, maybe you're right and you call so much that they remember your voice out of the thousands of people that they talk to on a daily basis. Totally plausible.
 
Not sure what the discussion regarding using names is about, but anyone who has a reserved seat or room on Amtrak, has what's known as a "personal name record", that tells that information. Anyone in a res center, or at a station with access to the Arrow system, can see that. Addressing the passenger by name, is just common and good business practice. When a conductor scans your ticket, I believe they can see it too. And sleeper attendants have a manifest, with everyone's name....
Based on the era in which ARROW was designed Amtrak PNR's are likely to be used as temporary records that only last a few weeks or months before being recycled back into the queue again. It’s the same with airline reservation systems from that era. I‘d Imagine that Amtrak’s CRM is connected to a call manager that looks up names and details as part of the standard inbound connection process.
 
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If nothing else when you put in your AGR Number your profile comes up on the Screen for the Agent to see.

I'm Hi-Tech Challenged so dont know other Computer tricks, but you do know that your Data isnt Private right? In fact its all over the World whether you want it to be or not!
 
If nothing else when you put in your AGR Number your profile comes up on the Screen for the Agent to see.

I'm Hi-Tech Challenged so dont know other Computer tricks, but you do know that your Data isnt Private right? In fact its all over the World whether you want it to be or not!

When one calls a toll-free number that goes into a call center, and one that you have called in the past in particular, one might be surprised at the information that "pops up" about a person.
 
As all have been stating, there is no personal privacy anymore, our personal information is everywhere, and we're all being watched... I do agree. But if one on one an Amtrak res agent is helping to maximize a reservation, finding lowest fares, etc. there is no problem with that.
 
There's honestly no malevolence behind it. In my former call center jobs, the information automatically loaded onto our screens so we didn't waste time searching for someone's account. Every second counts when people are waiting on hold.

That's one of the reasons we verify your name and other info. If you're calling from another line (or someone is using your phone, or you punch your account number in wrong), the information could be incorrect. It's also to verify that you are who you say you are, particularly if you're going to purchase something or change an order.

Even pizza places use this technology. When a customer gave me their phone number, their name and address loaded automatically. It saved us from having to type that in every time they ordered and prevented errors, such as misspellings and incorrect variations (St. vs Ct. vs. Cir.)

Credit card companies also do this with credit card numbers. When I worked for A Large Bank, I verified the last four digits of their card along with their name. It was much easier than asking someone to spell their address three times while I searched for them among the 2700 other "David Jones" in Detroit.

I'm sorry to ruin the magic, but as Ryan touched on in his response, unless I talk to someone once per week over the course of several months, I'm not going to remember their voice/name. I talk to around 150-200 people every day at my job, and I only recognize about 20-25 customer's voices after five years of working there. And that's dealing with only one state. If I handled calls for the entire country, I'm sure that number would go down.
 
I verified the last four digits of their card along with their name. It was much easier than asking someone to spell their address three times while I searched for them among the 2700 other "David Jones" in Detroit.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
At least it wasn't 'John Smith'...…...just sayin`. (Ouch, my eye cannot connect the dots of that Southern vernacular.) And I live in the South.....hmmm...ouch again.
 
At least it wasn't 'John Smith'...…...just sayin`.
Exactly.

And to that point, you don't know if their account was opened under Jon, John, or Jonathan. ;)

So really, I'm in love with the automated systems. My current system is not, and it's extremely frustrating when someone doesn't have their account number and gets huffy because it takes me 30 seconds to find them.
 
I think the OP was actually asking about station agents:

Fair point.

Please disclose this [hidden?] information on what you are talking about...

Second time I am asking for disclosure of this information.

Again, I can not divulge this information in such a public setting, and can't divulge it in general.

But, as I have stated, and others have stated, I would know. I have worked at the Call Center in Philadelphia.

Sometimes information is confidential and is unable to be released. It will not be disclosed to you by Acela150 or me no matter how many times you ask.

Thank You Penny! :) Well said!
 
Credit card companies also do this with credit card numbers. When I worked for A Large Bank, I verified the last four digits of their card along with their name. It was much easier than asking someone to spell their address three times while I searched for them among the 2700 other "David Jones" in Detroit.

Does Mr. Jones have an English accent?
 
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