Telstra Boss: Call Centre Jobs May ‘Not Exist In Five Years’

Speaking to ABC Radio on Friday, Telstra CEO David Thodey reasoned that these days we “don’t go into the bank branch that often and that’s going to be the truth, I think, about many of the traditional service-related jobs… it’ll be more and more digitally done.” What’s your take?

Image: Telstra boss David Thodey (Photo: Getty Images)

Offshoring jobs doesn’t tend to deliver the best outcome from a customer service quality point of view.
But I think it’s a fair point about where we’re headed in general. Last time I had a billing problem it was fixed quicker by my bank’s Twitter team. And chat sessions are hugely helpful when I’m at work. As Mr Thodey explained to ABC’s Radio’s Jon Faine, “more and more you’ll use an application on your phone and you’ll use the web to interact with us, so the future of call centre jobs is less in the future.”

Of course, there is a very real, local human downside to that trend. Fairfax Media details that Telstra has made 1600 various jobs redundant in the last year. According to Mr Thodey, 400 new positions have also been created. Friday’s comments have quickly drawn the attention of the Community and Public Sector Union (CPSU), who will meet with Telstra next week to discuss staff retraining strategies. [SMH]


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