British telecom network operator BT has decided to make an investment of £80 million to improve its customer service.
BT will make investment in upgrading systems used by call centre staff, while customers can use the BT mobile phone app to check their bill or track an engineer ahead of an appointment. BT said staff would receive an extra 100 hours of training to improve their response to complaints.
BT will hire 1,000 staff in the UK after customers complained that that they did not like speaking to staff in Indian call centers, The Guardian reported.
Its UK employees will assist BT in ensuring that at least 80 percent of calls will be answered from the UK by the end of the year against more than 50 percent currently. Though BT will be shifting its employees in Bangalore and Delhi to UK, they will not be part of the front desk who handles customer care jobs.
BT will be recruiting 100 staff at its South Wales center. The remaining jobs will be spread around BT’s 20 call centers throughout the UK.
BT has already created 1,000 jobs at UK call centers last year. The telecoms giant plans to double that number by April 2017.
The recruitment drive follows reports from BT customers that they preferred speaking to people in UK call centers rather than Indian staff based in Bangalore and Delhi.
Staff in its Indian call centers is expected to be moved into positions that do not involve talking to customers.
British telecom regulator Ofcom on Friday said that Sky and Virgin Media beat BT in terms of satisfaction with how complaints were handled.
BT beat major rivals Sky, TalkTalk and Virgin Media for resolving broadband complaints within an hour and was ranked second for landline problems.
