By Will Sturgeon, 1 August 2006 16:25
NEWS
Mobile phone operator Orange is reorganising its call centre operations in the UK, affecting up to 1,000 staff, while creating 300 new jobs at its Indian operation.
One call centre in Peterlee, County Durham, is being closed, with 900 staff being offered employment at two other locations in the North East. A further 100 staff in Solihull, West Midlands are also being offered the option to work in the Darlington or Tyneside call centres.
A spokesman for France Telecom-owned Orange said he has no idea how many will agree to the switch as the company has only just entered a three-month consultation with staff. However, he admitted relocation or a lengthy commute may not suit everybody affected.
Of the Peterlee closure the spokesman said: "We don't want to lose anybody, we just want to get rid of the building. We're not utilising it. We're probably using about 50 per cent of it so we're going to go from three to two buildings."
Orange has a lease on the building for "another few years" and will sub-let it, he said. The spokesman expects Orange employees to be out of the building by spring 2007.
The announcement coincides with news that Orange is to hire 300 staff at its Indian call centre operations. That process is likely to be competed by the end of the year, the spokesman said.
Comments
There are 6 comments. Join the discussion
1. Richard
Another company to avoid!
This week, I've had to deal with two "off-shore" contact centres:
The Olympus centre is in Eastern Europe: Staff seemed to have only the misleading info. I'd already found on the company's web-site. They couldn't or wouldn't help & seemed not to care.
The HP Computers' centre is in India: Staff tried to help but their computers were broken! The phone lines to India were terrible. The info. about the fault on my PC that they sent to the UK repair centre was garbled, so the repair was unsuccessful. The UK repair centre ignored my letter detailing the fault and my phone calls to explain it. It has wasted a lot of my time and also the time of their skilled UK staff.
Perhaps CEOs should sample the experience provided to customers?
2. Sarah
More (call centre) jobs going offshore and still no immigration control.
I hate to think where UK plc will be in the future (even as soon as 5 years from now) .....
Still as long as President Tony is happy, what does it matter?!
3. Sandra
Previous experience with offshore call centres contradict the "customer care" ethos. Although some operators seem very nice and quite keen to help, their knowledge, dialect and the quality of the telephone line/headset leave a lot to be desired.
The first time I receive a call centre response of this nature - or no response at all, is when I never deal with the company again. By choice, I will move to the competition.
The call centres relinquish their status as being an asset to the company if they are unable to achieve a certain level of customer service. Without that, they become a liability and the Company would be better off with the call centre being non-existant.
The Ad's in these cases should state "you can contact us, but you won't be able to hear us, and we won't be able to help"
4. Bill Lewis
Orange cust service has gone from bad to crap and now offshore.
Anyone in IT support will know just how bad these offshore call centers are;
Poor English spoken
Unbelievably strong local accents
Poor telephone connections
Script reading resolution
Zero product knowledge
I now always ask to speak to thier supervisor because "I cannot understand you", this at least gets you beyond the first row of chickens.
5. anonymous
Not losing jobs to India - yeah right and pigs fly as well.
6. Suresh
I am again surprised that this company has gone to the sewer tunnel. They will be "peeled" in India after known multinational companies have retreated form such offshore call centres. WE do not speak the same "langauge". I have great experiences of that country.