BT resorts to in-sourcing after India call centre complaints

British Telecom plans to recruit 1,000 staff in the UK, seen as a reaction to customers unwilling to speak to staff at its Indian call centres.
The UK's leading telecom group said it would ensure that at least 80 per cent of calls were answered from the UK by the end of the year, up from more than 50 per cent at present.
Staff at its Indian call centres in Bengaluru and Delhi, which BT started using in 2003, are expected to be moved into positions that do not involve talking to customers.
"We will have created 2,000 permanent UK jobs by the end of this process, including agency transfers, which is a fantastic boost for the UK economy," said BT Consumer customer care director Libby Barr.

"This demonstrates the commitment from everyone at BT to work together to improve customer service and to make things easy for our customers," she said.
The announcement follows the UK communications regulator Ofcom reporting last month that BT was one of the most complained about firms for both its TV and broadband services.

A recent survey by consumer rights group Which? had found that a vast majority of consumers (90 per cent) in the country felt UK companies should not operate call centres abroad.
The new roles in Britain would be created between now and April, 2017 and spread across BT's UK call centres, with an initial 100 created at Swansea in Wales.

In total, BT's consumer division has committed to spending an extra 80 million pounds over two years to improve its performance in answering customer calls.