Wednesday, July 29, 2009

BT relocates call-centre jobs to the UK. Bringing Further Gloom for India

In a complete reversal of the normal outsourcing policy for some years now, BT has decided to relocate 2,000 call centre jobs, currently held in India to the UK.

This is seen as a wholly predictable cost cutting measure that will slash half of BT's India-based customer service operations.

Backlash hits India
India is facing further decline in its business of providing customer support and response centres as an outsourced operation, over the coming months. BT insisted that the move is entirely cost-based and is “not about customer service”.

Shareholder Questions
The decision was revealed during a shareholder question session at BT’s annual meeting. When one BT shareholder asked when the company would close its Indian call centres. Her question was met with an enthusiastic round of applause by other investors. Demonstrating a substantial rise in support for in-country and UK national providers.

Chief Executive Statement
Chief executive Ian Livingston then disclosed the decision. After the meeting a BT spokesperson said: “This is not about customer service, as the service in our operations around the globe is of very similar standards. One shareholder commented that they would have preferred that he had used the term 'a very similar high standard of service'.

Mr Livingston went on to say; “It is about the effective deployment of our resources.” BT currently has 11,000 customer-facing call centre staff in the UK.

What Colour is the Future?
Last year the telecoms giant, BT axed 15,000 jobs across the company, and plans to cut a further 15,000 posts this year, to meet shareholders expectations, after reporting a net loss of £83 million in the year to March 2009.

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