CHICAGO— eTelecare, a provider of offshore call centers for multiple industries, has begun targeting the hotel industry and is currently in talks with several travel corporations to assume call center operations. Headquarted in Los Angeles, the company provides call centers located in the Phillipines for a variety of major corporations, such as Dell, Office Depot, and recently American Express. eTelecare will soon assume all calls from American Express customers dealing with lost or stolen traveler’s checks. The deal marks the customer service provider’s emergence into the travel industry. According to Derek Holley, president/eTelecare, the company is in talks with several large hotel brands to expand its call center operations and reportedly Six Continents has already been to visit the company’s Manila-based call centers. “We can save hotels 40% on their call center operations,” said Holley, noting that his call agents are highly trained, college graduates. “Because are centers are located in the Philippines, we can hire higher quality people at lower costs,” he said. eTelecare also plans to announced a recently inked call center contract with a major timeshare brand within the next few weeks. —Diana M. Rodriguez
