TalkTalk is scrapping its call centre in Waterford, Ireland, with the loss of 575 jobs, amid claims that it has less need for contact centre staff following a fall in the number of customer complaints.
The move comes despite the company – and its subsidiary Tiscali – being inundated with complaints after overcharging thousands of customers for unused services. Last month it was revealed that together they had been forced to shell out a total of £5.5m – including fines and goodwill payments.
In a statement, the company said: “We’ve concentrated on simplifying our business and, as a result of significant improvements to the TalkTalk customer experience, call volumes across the whole of our contact centre estate are down 40 per cent year on year.
“We are also seeing customers increasingly choosing to deal with us online due to the services they are purchasing, and we expect this trend to continue. Indeed, for the first time, the majority of our customer interactions are now online.”
TalkTalk also said that moving out of Ireland will sever its financial ties with the eurozone and “limit our exposure to exchange rate fluctuations”.
The ISP will now enter a 30-day consultation period and look to relocate staff where possible.
“We will be making every effort over the coming weeks to give those affected the support and help they may need to consider their options for the future, including in some instances the option of relocating to another TalkTalk site,” the company said.
The rest of TalkTalk’s call centre operations will be outsourced to Wipro and Transcom and the company’s other call centre locations.
The closure of the Waterford site follows the shedding of 580 staff between January and April as part of a “major restructuring”.
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