Patricia Hewitt defends UK call centre industry

Trade
and industry secretary Patricia Hewitt today said the Government would
challenge the ‘myth’ that the British call centre sector is in terminal decline.

Hewitt
launched a sector study into the global challenges facing the UK call centre
industry to try and assess its ability to respond to the challenges of the
global market.

"The
headlines announce thousands of jobs going to India and the Far East, but the
truth is that call centres in this country are still a thriving," she
said.

Paul
Pagliari, HR director at Scottish Water, said that where call centres needed
high-quality involvement with customers, all the evidence pointed to the fact
that India was not the place to base them.

"You
need local understanding and local geographic knowledge to deliver a quality
local service," he said.

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This
week Nationwide became the latest business to announce the outsourcing of call
centres, with 2,350 jobs being lost to India.

By Michael Millar