Many would rather talk to an app than a person
“There will be no closures of New Zealand call centres as an outcome of this process,” Vodafone NZ boss Jason Paris told the Herald as the telco’s restructure continues.
His reassurance comes after Paris responded to a reader comment on possible call centre offshoring: “As a proud and passionate New Zealander my preference is to keep roles in New Zealand, but when the customer service is the same or better and at a much lower cost then it’s tough to ignore this option. Just to clarify that in these overseas call centres we pay the agents well based on their local market and cost of living.”
Vodafone NZ customers currently have their support calls sent to helpdesks in Auckland, Wellington, Christchurch, or one of three offshore call centres — two in the Philippines and one in India.
Paris says the total number of call centre staff would only be lowered if the pain points that trigger helpdesk calls can be reduced first.
He says more self-service and automation options are in the works.
“When you’re dealing with an organisation, you’d much rather deal with us for an app or digital channels than talk to people, in the main, unless it’s a big decision or a complex problem,” he says. “We’ve spent a lot of money on trying to acquire new customers and probably haven’t done as good a job as we would like to demonstrating to the existing customers how much we value their business,” Paris said.
Automation will be part of the mix as the telco seeks to lift its game. Services will be digitised on many levels. One initiative saw a virtual human, “Kiri”, introduced via smart kiosks in a number of Vodafone NZ stores shortly before Christmas in an AI trial.
If Vodafone NZ does end up offshoring more call centre roles, rivals 2degrees and Vocus (owner of Orcon and Slingshot) can be expected to make hay. 2degrees has long used the fact that all of its 350 or so call centre staff are based in New Zealand as a marketing point.
And last year, Vocus promoted the fact it had brought support roles from Manila to Auckland.
Spark got a lot of stick when (as Telecom) it moved most of its centre operations to Manila in 2006. But a Spark insider notes that migrant staff are common at call centres in New Zealand, and 2degrees spokeswoman Katherine Cornish confirms her company approached the Government last year to negotiate a prior approval process to help call centre staff from outside New Zealand to get or renew their work visas.
Paris says while outsourcing and offshoring are possibilities, there could also be “in-sourcing” if that makes financial sense.
He emphasises call centres are just one element of the restructure. All 10 of the company’s business units are being assessed, he says, as managers and staff are asked for their input. Earlier this week, Paris confirmed that 10 senior management roles would be axed.
Rank and file staff will learn their fate by the end of March.