Telecom offshores 250 more jobs to Manila
Juggling the demands of shareholders with the feel-good sentiments of its Made From New Zealand campaign, Telecom is exporting more call centre jobs to the Philippines.
The telco says it will outsource 250 call centre positions to the Philippines over the next 18 months. At the end that period, around 700 staff answering 123 help calls will be working for Manila based call centre. The remaining 1600 will be based at Telecom’s own call centres around New Zealand, mostly based in Hamilton.
Telecom chief executive of retail Alan Gourdie says the move follows 12 months of trials, which proved outsourced call centres could match New Zealand standards.
The telco has previously been under fire for a series of moves that seem to run counter to the Telecom-supported Made From New Zealand campaign, with its feel-good messages supporting Kiwi business, and New Zealand made products and services.
Telecom was earlier stumped when asked why it was pushing Microsoft Unified Communications software through its Business Hub services portal while failing to support local unified comms companies such as IPFX and Zeacom.
The company has also drawn flak for YahooXtra email and other customer files being stored in Sydney (the YahooXtra portal, which also handles web mail for Telecom Broadband customers, is 51% owned by Yahoo's joint venture with the Seven Media Group, Yahoo7, and 49% by Telecom).
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Comments and questions13
"Telecom chief executive of retail Alan Gourdie says the move follows 12 months of trials, which proved outsourced call centres could match New Zealand standards."
Moron.
Wants to try his own call centres. After you have asked the character on the other end of the line to repeat him/herself 5 or 6 times, you usually ask to speak to someone that understands NZ english, not the grammatically correct versions they teach when learning English as a second language.
Last year I became, inadvertently, one of the trial callers, finding himself patched through to Manila with a tricky firewall problem. The response was instant and the advice was clear. To my happy surpise, the problem was soon solved.
Dare I say it, but it was probably the best, and fastest, phone support I've ever received from Telecom (or in this instance, someone in the Philippines on Telecom's behalf). - Chris Keall
telecom should stop & think for a moment;the world is diving into a major recession & goverment is talking about 100's of thousands being unemployed; is telecom just going to add to that problem; kiwi's need jobs from n.z. company's,or do we all have to go live in manila or india or sumwhere similar,just to get work; only thinking of profits,is what caused all this trouble in first place; get real telecom; & please stop playing foreign music on answer phones;support kiwi made & kiwi earned
Telecom customers - vote with your feet - switch to Telstraclear, Vodafone or anybody else. Easy, it can be done.
Hate to break it to you Sam, but TelstraClear is a 100%-owned subsidiary of Telstra across the ditch, and Vodafone is headquartered in the UK.
In turn, Telecom owns an Aussie telco, AAPT, and majority-owns the Southern Cross Cable Company, incorporated in Bermuda.
It's a big, crazy global village out there, so you'll probably have to resort to communicating by cans and a piece of string if you want to avoid any company with cross-border investment.
Well there goes any chance Telecom has of convincing us they're a Kiwi through and through company. If they were they'd keep their profits and their staff on shore.
Telecom shareholders all live overseas... I guess the staff do as well now.
CEO is from England, so everything go oversea is OK.
When you employ local, he may use more local.
You ask for it. Don't get upset, more to come.
People in NZ use Telecom NZ services NOT people from other countries....remember who pays your bill telecom...the people who use your service. Support NZ and NZ will support you..I'm sick and tired of the crap excuses given about why sending jobs offshore are better for the company. What about the country that has supported you for so long...ANZ National are the same...I for one will NO longer support any company that relies on profit generated by consumers in NZ who is prepared to can jobs in NZ for the sake of saving a few dollars....
Telecom were starting to pick themselves up. New mobile network, new broadband network etc on the way, then they go wash it down with offshore call centres. Did they ever ask anyone if they liked speaking to someone from the phillipeans that has a accent that is hard to understand who give text book answers and dont listen to the customer....
Get real telecom. I left you years ago for companies with NZ based call centres. Bring the jobs back home or you will have a lot of unemployed ex telecom staff who wont be about to pay your montly accounts.
it all started with the pig muldoom ,the big sellout of nz to the world bank with massive loans,and the scrapping of nzs new super fund,and other great things,helped along with douglas and his rich white mates ,the country was sold down the river and we are reaping those rewards ,not.we had to buy back the rail now i guess we have to nationalise telecom and stuff the overseas investors.some things are not to be trusted in foreign hands.with some luck we could run it broke and pick it cheap.
When YOU go to the shops, how often do YOU pay more for an NZ-made product over an import? Was your fridge made in NZ? Do you ever buy a cheaper import when you have choice? Have you ever used a cheap calling card? Would you pay more to Telecom for a telephone line if all employees and service were NZ based - against cheaper products from oustourcing companies? Where do YOU really stand?
Poor filipinos they are just the last resort of campanies that wanted to pay cheap for middle quality service.
I' ve heard that the salary for a Filipino agent is 30-50 times cheaper compared to a local rep...no wonder they are getting all the work.
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