BT creates 1,000 new UK call centre jobs in bid to improve customer service

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BT is creating 1,000 new customer service jobs in the UK as part of an £80 million investment to boost performance and restore its reputation after being criticised for poor customer service.

The Telecoms giant, which has over 10 million UK customers, has pledged to answer 80 per cent of customer calls in UK call centres by the end of 2016 up from the current 50 per cent.

The jobs announced today come in addition to the 1,000 already filled in September 2015.

Swansea will be the first place to benefit from the announcement, with an additional 100 customer service roles to add to the 50 extra advisors recently hired at site. The rest of the jobs will be spread across BT’s other UK call centres.

BT currently employs 72,000 people in the UK.

Libby Barr, managing director of customer care at BT Consumer, said the new hires should mean more people are available to answer calls in the UK at weekends and in the evenings.

“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.

A survey of more than 3,500 people by the consumer group Which? ranked BT as the third worst company for how it deals with customers, in September 2015. Some 34 per cent of customers rated its service as “poor” or “very poor

The news comes after BT planned takeover of EE, the mobile phone operator was cleared by the Competition and Markets Authority after a six-month investigation.

Rivals immediately warned that the £12.5 billion takeover could lead to prices rising by as much as a quarter but the regulator said that it had found no evidence that the deal would result in a “substantial lessening of competition”.

More details of what BT plans to do with EE – including any rebranding – will be revealed in its full-year results on 1 February.