Vodafone upgrade could lead to job cuts

Spruced up customer service technology at Vodafone could mean a cut to the company's call centre staff.

The majority of calls made by customers to the telco are outsourced to call centre provider Salmat Salesforce, which also handles over-the-phone and door-to-door sales for the company.

Vodafone has been upgrading the self-help services available to its mobile customers and is expecting fewer calls to its call centre staff.

The telco has dropped its unpopular $1 per call charge for prepay users calling customer service.

Vodafone spokesman Paul Brislen said the company was "rebalancing" its relationship with Salmat.

Chief executive of Salmat's contact centre division, Andrew Hume, said the adjustment process was typical in an outsourcing business when a client's volumes changed.

He said about 200 staff were employed to answer calls from Vodafone's customers.

Salmat's executive general manager of call centres Dave Candy said there would be no agent layoffs as a result of the changes.

But he would not confirm whether Salmat would seek to reduce the number of staff dealing with Vodafone calls through other means, such as attrition, or how many people may be affected by the changes, citing commercial sensitivity.

Candy said Vodafone had made some internal appointments available to its staff.

Hume said the company had begun talking to its team to keep them informed of the changes.

An industry source said a reduction in the number of Salmat staff taking calls on behalf of Vodafone was expected by December.

Globally, Vodafone has focused on a plan to cut £1 billion ($2.1 billion) out of its business by March 2011.

Its British business this month laid off 400 call centre staff on top of 375 call centre job losses earlier this year.

This week Vodafone New Zealand's showed its net profit for the year ending March 31 was $121.6 million, down $56.1 million from $177.7 million in 2009.

Operating revenue was down, from $1.6 billion last year to $1.59 billion this year.

ABN Amro telecommunications analyst Geoff Zame said Vodafone New Zealand's revenues had remained broadly unchanged year-on-year, and the emergence of 2degrees into the market and higher operating costs were to blame for decreased margins.

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