April 3, 2002—BT Group will close 53 of its call centers over the next two years but spend 100m creating a network of what it calls ‘next-generation contact centers’.
The move comes as the result of an extensive review of call centers that handle the greatest volume of contacts and a month-long consultation with the unions. Around 2,200 full-time equivalent posts will be lost leaving the number of people working in BT Retails call center operation at around 13,600.
There will be no compulsory redundancies says BT and the majority of its employees will relocate to the new sites.
BT says the 30 new multi-function contact centers will better meet the changing demands of its customers. Patricia Vaz, BT Retail’s managing director of customer service, said: “We do not underestimate the impact of this transformation project and virtually everyone in our existing call center operation will be affected in one way or another.
Carol Borghesi, director of the next-generation contact center project said: “We will be spending 100m to ensure our people get the best training, have the best working environment and can exploit cutting-edge technology to deliver the kind of services our customers want.
About 10% of people working in BT’s call centers leave by their own choice each year, said Borghesi. She outlined the progress BT has made over the past 18 months in improving service standards including a 35% reduction in repeat contacts, a fall of 50% in the number of abandoned calls and a 10% improvement in the number of calls answered promptly.
—Richard Byatt
Reprinted with permission; copyright 2002 i-FM
