back to article Three outsources staff to Capita

Staff at Three are poised to receive a very early Christmas present - in the form of a Transfer of Undertakings Protection of Employment notice to everyone's favourite outsourcer Capita. Under the £70m deal over the next seven years, 450 employees in customer service, sales and operational management in Three’s Glasgow contact …

  1. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Oh well there goes 3

  2. Missing Semicolon Silver badge
    Unhappy

    Glasgow centre?

    I've heard of it, but never spoken to them. Unless the staff are all trained to speak with an Indian accent.

    Poor buggers. 2 year's notice of redundancy then.

    Sigh.

  3. Paul

    I wonder if Capita learned anything from the last time they "helped" run a mobile phone company...

    http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/mediatechnologyandtelecoms/telecoms/10087909/Capita-plans-to-close-O2-call-centres-and-cut-thousands-of-jobs.html

    http://www.theregister.co.uk/2015/06/25/capita_voluntary_redundancy_call_centres_o2/

    http://www.theregister.co.uk/2015/09/29/capita_o2_staff_asked_to_stick_around/

  4. MrKrotos

    Currently a 3 customer

    Time to look around me thinks :)

    1. Josco

      Re: Currently a 3 customer

      Me too. Not too much choice, so back to Vodafone we go. There is a slight upside though, 2 years ago no provider had any service round here, now they all have except 3.

    2. beaker_72

      Re: Currently a 3 customer

      Good luck with that! The only way I was able to get "Steve" in Mumbai and his mates to cancel my contract was by raising a complaint with the ombudsman.

      When I finally got to speak to someone who wasn't sticking rigidly to the script or putting me on hold for up to 30 minutes (after the ombudsman cracked some heads together), they were based in Glasgow and their service was excellent. I dare say that will be going down the pan shortly....

  5. Wupspups

    Same old, same old.

    "We will now work hard to ensure all employees affected by this change are fully supported and we will be commencing consultations with them.”

    Or, "We will have a couple of meetings with them. Talk a lot of bull hockey. Then kick them out and give them not another thought."

  6. Natalie Gritpants

    £155k per body

    The vampires at Capita must be hungry if they'll pay that much.

  7. Triggerfish

    World is back to normal

    I had been pleasantly suprised at 3 and their customer service especially after coming from Orange, things got done, managers called back, issues were resolved. It was odd it was like for some reason the suits running the company had put customer service in as one of their metrics. The world was odd.

    It's nice to see the world getting back to normal. With a return of crap service and basically not giving a fuck about the customer well done Three nice to know you want to be like the rest, absolute shite.

    1. Velv
      Childcatcher

      Hindsight is a wonderful thing

      Why do you think they got round to getting Customer Service right with their own internal team?

      So they could unfairly measure the performance of the outsourced contract once it kicks in

  8. kingwahwah

    Just moved to them for my personal mobile. Good on phone.

    Use them for some Biz data sims. Scottish speakers also really helpful.

    Shame. I guess they hired a new graduate MBA in the summer who said they could save money.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      I guess they hired a new graduate MBA in the summer who said they could save money.

      The received wisdom amongst those currently running any customer facing business using call centres is that the customers want to engage digitally by default. If a company's IT platform can't offer 100% digital interaction, then its bosses conclude they will be doomed, and likewise they think it needs to offer a fully integrated multi-channel experience - so that customers can hop from text, email, voice, live chat, phone and letter, and each time the machine/.operator has the right details and history of interaction.

      The important thing here, that is pushing companies to outsource their call centres, is the belief that they are going to need far fewer people in cubicle farms answering phones. The outsourcers promise flexibility (which you may say, "yeah, at what price?") and that's what the companies think they are buying.

      The other big IT angle is that if you get your processes right, and your service works, you have far fewer calls. In the energy sector, for example, the industry believes smart meters will result in accurate reads and no estimated bills, hence will need far fewer call centre people. In the mobile space the billing systems have largely always been automated, but the actual customer interaction has been far more manual. But what some new entrants are now doing better than incumbents (and their captive MVNOs) is that push to fully digital interaction - from sign up, registration and on-boarding, porting, payment and address detail changes, even getting a PAC code. In my experience the incumbents know which way the wind is blowing, but are still struggling to make that move to 100% self administration, as much for cultural as technical reasons.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Licence to kill

        Sanchez had the right idea about how to save money using MBAs

      2. Missing Semicolon Silver badge
        Unhappy

        "customers want to engage digitally by default"

        That my be the case, but they cannot do that if they are trying to spend less money. So cancellations and upgrades will always be done by humans, as it is perceived that there is a greater chance of making an up-sale.

        Which is bad news for us, as it will make cancellation harder. The human on the other end is on a bonus to keep your custom - that can lead to bad behavour.

      3. Lotaresco

        Digital by default my ****

        "The received wisdom amongst those currently running any customer facing business using call centres is that the customers want to engage digitally by default."

        Which would be fine if you could. However they don't offer all their services digitally. I wanted to transfer a phone number from one handset to another. This should be a piece of cake, right? After all it's not much more than a minor administrative detail.

        But it's not possible on-line. They insist that you must call them. You are then on hold for at least 20 minutes before someone tells you that you can't do that. Then when you say "Fine, I'll just take my business elsewhere then" miraculously it becomes possible. Then they try and sell you something which was the whole point of getting you to phone them in the first place.

  9. Franco

    I've never spoken to Glasgow (always get India) but IME 3's customer service is better than average for mobile providers. Or was, I should say.

  10. Dan 55 Silver badge
    Devil

    It's always Crapita

    What do they use to make clients forget about the trail of outsourcing disasters left in their wake? I'd like some.

    1. Smoking Gun

      Re: It's always Crapita

      "These are not the droids you're looking for" Waves hand.

  11. Paul Woodhouse

    damn... I'm with 3 now and I quite like them :(... ho well, phones out of contract anyway, can go elsewhere easy nuff...

  12. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Whats wrong with them?

    Can anyone tell me when does the next price rise kick in, due to Crapita taking over?

    How long before the services go down the drain?

  13. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    We will leverage our

    shit

  14. Peter27x

    incentive

    I really think the UK government needs to take a look at this, perhaps a tax on all all jobs a company outsources for more than 1 year, increased more of outsourced offshore?

    Either that or change the tax laws around capex/opex, reduce corporation tax on opex below a threshold set up as a factor of staff directly employed in the UK?

    Anything to try to put a curb on outsourcing and/or offshoring existing jobs

  15. Mark Exclamation

    Do these people REALLY believe what they are saying....?

    Gurpreet Gujral, director of contact centres at Three, said the decision to appoint a "specialist customer services partner" for some of our customer service operations in Glasgow will ensure the "best possible experience" for customers.

    Andy Parker, chief exec of Capita, said: “This partnership is a demonstration of Capita’s continuing commitment to delivering outstanding customer management for our clients across a wide range of sectors."

    If they really do believe it, they should be sacked for incompetence!

  16. a_yank_lurker

    Bonuses

    The upper level PHBs get a bonus, the mid levels hang for awhile, the troops get axed, and the customer gets screwed.

  17. a_yank_lurker

    Peggy

    Over here Discover Card had a series of ads mocking offshore customer service starring a befuddled CSR named Peggy. He (that is correct) had trouble with English with his thick Eastern European accent.

    1. Lotaresco

      Re: Peggy

      And then there is the IT Crowd. I'm convinced that Graham Linehan must have owned a Sony VAIO and needed to call their Belgian call centre at some point. Because this is what it sounded like when you tried to call them for help.

      The IT Crowd - Assistance (Season4)

  18. Sir Barry

    Has Three done their due diligence, looking at the track record of Capita's 'service' and the treatment of TUPEd staff?

    "Andy Parker, chief exec of Capita, said: “This partnership is a demonstration of Capita’s continuing commitment to delivering outstanding customer management for our clients across a wide range of sectors."

    Should read:

    "Andy Parker, chief exec of Capita, said: “This partnership is a demonstration of Capita’s continuing commitment to delivering outstanding COST SAVINGS for our clients across a wide range of sectors."

  19. andy 28

    Glasgow bods are good

    I can't remember how I got to talk to the Glasgow team but they were excellent. Shame crapita are taking over

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