Car Rental Cos. Closing, Relocating Call Centers

<B> Car Rental Cos. Closing, Relocating Call Centers</B>

By Lynn Woods

Budget Rent A Car has opened a new call center in Toronto. In line with a trend on the part of U.S. corporations to locate call centers in Canada, Budget chose Toronto as the location of its new facility because of the city's highly educated, bilingual work force and high unemployment rate.

The 115-seat center is participating in a new system that enables calls to be transferred between Budget's centers, to best utilize the most skilled agents at each.

Meanwhile, Alamo Rent-A-Car's call center in Salt Lake City, one of the firm's three U.S. call facilities, has started to accommodate calls from sister company National Car Rental as well. "We want to maximize our overhead structure, " said Dave Kielkucki, Alamo's senior vice president of customer communications. "We've eliminated the need for National to look for a new facility."

Kielkucki noted that National also uses Alamo's call center in Brighton, England. While calls in the United States are freely routed among the three centers, depending on hours open (together they cover 24 hours of the day) and volume at each, the Brighton center, which is not open 24 hours, is more limited. Eventually, calls to Europe will be routed to the U.S. centers, he said.

To cut down on no-shows, Alamo has begun testing a program in 12 U.S. cities in which the firm "proactively" follows up on confirming a reservation with a phone call, Kielkucki said.

Dollar Rent A Car recently closed its call center in Ft. Lauderdale and opened a second center in Oklahoma. The facility is linked to the existing Tulsa center, improving the capacity to answer calls promptly.