[3GScottishUser]

From BBCi 23/01/2007:

The mobile phone company 3 is to lose around a quarter of its call centre staff in Glasgow.

About 120 jobs will go over the next three months but the company said it hopes to redeploy some of them in its retail outlets.

A company spokesman said the plans would mean that some of the contact centre functions would be relocated elsewhere.

The move will affect staff working in the St Vincent Street centre.

A spokesman said: "As our business matures, we have realised we need to create more opportunities for face-to-face contact with our customers.

Firm commitment

"Over the next year we plan to dramatically increase the number of 3 stores which will enable customers to engage directly with our business.

"A consultation process is already in place, and we have a firm commitment to re-deployment.

"Where it is not possible to find re-deployment opportunities within 3, we will be working in partnership with Scottish Enterprise and other relevant partners to help find roles for employees wherever we can."

The firm is owned by Hong Kong business Hutchison Whampoa.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/glasgow_and_west/6292847.stm

[Hands0n]

If by "relocated" they mean Mumbai CS then they are deepening the pit into which they fell on day one! Don't they realise the pain that damned so-called CS causes the Customer? Do they want to antagonise the remaining custom to the point of departure to other networks?

3 should be increasing their Glasgow CS, the only CS operation available to the UK Customer that has any credibility at all.

Lamentably, 3 are not listening or taking note.

It is absolutely useless sending Customers into the 3 stores to remedy their problems if the stores have to recourse to the Mumbai CS to actually get anything done. That is, unless, and unlikely that, 3 are going to empower their High Street stores to actually perform a CS function, i.e. actually do something to practically assist the Customer.

I think this is folly in the extreme!

[miffed]

Surely Three MUST be aware that their Mumbai CS is the BIGGEST bone of contention in the UK telco industry ?
Surely they are aware that people saw the Glasgow CS centre as a godsend ? The amount of time you'd read a problem on the forums where someone will have a long tale of woe - followed by "eventually got through to someone with a scottish accent , they were very helpful and friendly .... problem sorted ( sometimes ;) ) etc ?
I remember when we were all falling over ourselves to get hold of the "Glasgow direct" number ! - Surely Three MUST have noticed that people were sourcing the number and trying to bypass India ?

if this is true , and Three don't open another UK call centre - then that is pretty much corporate suicide

on the other hand , perhaps they are going to pull out of Mumbai and then recentralise a HUGE UK call cantre .... Now THAT would be clever & sensible :D .......So why do I doubt that it'll happen ? :rolleyes:

[3GScottishUser]

I agree that this move is probably the opposite of what logic would suggest would be in the interests of 3 and their UK customers.

On the other hand, 3's business has been shrinking for months. Pre-pay has seen little activity for about a year and it's very likely that base has greatley diminished due to the customer repalcement cycle. Contract sales are a fraction of what they once were and still suffer from heavy churn (reported in Mobile Today recently) and it'll take time for 3's own outlets to replace the deals lost from lack of support by the majors. All of this means that 3 may simply not require as many customer service agents to deal with enquires and complaints.

Whilst it's good news that Glasgow call centre staff are being offered alternative jobs in retail outlets one has to question whether the call centre staff are ideal candidates to become sales people and having been displaced from their cosy call centre will these folks really want to go the distance for 3 in their shops? If 3 manage to make this work it'll be a first!!

Overall extremely bad news and further confirmation that 3 UK are now contracting which is not what one would expect of a company which has made such heavy investment in the mobile sector and has been trading for just 4 years.

[3g-g]

Perhaps it's the Glasgow boy in me, but I read that thread title as "3 slash Glasgow CS staff" and imagined some Three company ned walking about the call centre with a big blade taking folk on!

"c'moan ya dobbers, come n get it, yaaasssss!"

Some local chat for you there.

[3GScottishUser]

Aye.... you thought Bob & co were running up and down the centre 'chibbing' the staff!!

Not quite..... but some further insight from the Daily Record (23/01/2007):

MORE than 600 workers lost their jobs yesterday.

Almost 500 will be axed after care provider One Plus went bust.

And mobile phone firm 3 plan to transfer 120 call centre jobs to India.

[...]

Meanwhile, stunned 3 staff broke down in tears at their Glasgow base as they heard their jobs would be transferred to Mumbai by May.

One insider said: "The bosses hit us with all of the usual nonsense about this being essential for the business and for the good of everyone.

"But the truth is clearly that they have found a way to cut costs by paying Indian workers a fraction of the wages we get."

The firm's Hugh Davies said he hoped many of the axed workers would find other jobs with the company.


http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/tm_headline=double-blow-as-firms-axe-600-jobs%26method=full%26objectid=18521417%26siteid=66 633-name_page.html

[Hands0n]

One word ............ SUICIDE!

Another word .................... TWATS!!

[gorilla]

I have to say when I was with 3, their call centre in India served me well.
I'll never forget that first time when I called and I had my first dropped call with 3! That was funny. It was better after that. It took a few calls if memory serves to get my 6680 unlocked despite paying for it to be done on the first call. Or when I downgraded my tariff, and a month later I was still on the original. Coming to think about it now, I don't like that call centre. :confused:

I don't really understand the logic at work here. Are they really going to expand their retail outlets? That's madness. If that happens, how long before they're closed? I've only ever bought one phone/contract from a shop and that was my very 1st mobile on a vodafone contract and that was from an independent. Mobile retail outlets are a nightmare at the best of times, certainly I would not relish the opportunity to visit one of them on my lunch hour to sort a problem with either my handset or my bill.

3, you've lost the plot.

[3GScottishUser]

I dont think 3 intend to relocate CS staff to their stores to help solve problems for customers. They are moving the CS staff and redeploying them as sales people.

?????

[Hands0n]

To paraphrase Monty Python's Life of Brian .......... "What have 3 ever done for the Customer?"

We are, to 3, nought but cash cows.

[3g-g]

Seriously, what kind of info is presented at board level for these decisions to be made? They only need to look 5 minutes down the road to where O2 have taken 3 huge floors of an office complex to run CS out of Glasgow too, surely this shows what the Great British public want as their customer service experience. Do they seriously need to save every penny (in real terms losing 120 jobs in Glasgow is no great shakes to the books I'd of thought when you're pissing money away every day as they do) so shifting to India is the only way to do it?

I'm utterly perplexed as to what goes on in their heads.

Twats is far too kind a word!

[miffed]

quite clever when you think about it ....

Poorer CS will innevitably lead to less customers - which will lead to less need for CS ?

Can't beleive you are all missing 3's strategy

:rolleyes:

[gorilla]

I get ya, like the bank ad "how do we stop queues at branches? Close them down".
Is that very clever or sneaky?

[getti]

I know someone this effects unfortunatly. Felt really sorry for him too as he would do all he could to help me with 3 questions a while back

[Ben]

Three need to cut their costs, bigtime. They need to sign up new customers, bigtime. Moving positions from Customer Service to Retail is the unfortunate result. At least retail staff in 3's direct store will be able to provide some form of CS to local customers.

Lets face it, though, 3 is culling staff from the wrong call centre.

[3GScottishUser]

3 are reducing costs to fit their subscriber base which has shrunk bigtime...

HWL are simply trying to make the numbers fit as they want to sell up and that only makes sense if their costs reflect the numbers they now serve.

[Ben]

They reportedly have about 4m subscribers at the moment. If the other networks switch to retention mode, as O2 is hinting at, then Three may well have to make do.

[3GScottishUser]

They (H3G UK) had 3.7 million but with churn and no pre-pay activity that has probably shrunk to 3 or more likely 2.5 million.

3 are simply reacting to the lower subscriber base.