Sprint looks to be moving quickly on planned job cuts as the beleaguered telecommunications provider tries to gain its footing under new management.
According to published reports, Sprint announced this week plans to cut 1,550 customer service positions, including the closure of a number of call centers and reductions in staff at others. The Star-Telegram reported that call centers in Sacramento, Calif.; Elmsford, N.Y.; and Overland Park, Kan., will be closed resulting in 550 job cuts. Sprint is also set to drop half the positions at a Fort Worth, Texas-based call center resulting in the loss of 450 jobs, with another 150 positions set to be cut at a Temple, Texas-based call center and about 400 positions at a call center in Orlando, Fla.
The report said Sprint had informed employees of the changes in January and that the moves would come during the first half of this year. A Sprint spokeswoman told the Star-Telegram that it employees set to lose their jobs by March 25 would be eligible for separation benefits, including additional pay based on length of service.
The spokeswoman explained that Sprint was seeing less of a need for customer care representatives due to growing use of self-service care and a move towards easier-to-understand rate plans.
“We are seeing fewer calls coming into customer care,” Melinda Tiemeyer, spokeswoman for Sprint told the Star-Telegram. “That’s the result, for example, that many customers are on their second or third smartphone so they are well past the learning curve of using their phones. … Also, our technology is improving, our customers can use more self-service options to make changes to their account. That’s something we’ve tried to do more as an organization to help customers do more online themselves,” she said.
Sprint’s VP of customer experience Jim Curran made similar statements during an RCR Wireless News webinar late last year looking into customer experience management.
Sprint earlier this year noted in a Securities and Exchange Commission filing plans for job cuts, noting at that time that while the area of the cuts had yet to be announced, the cuts could come from customer care as the carrier has moved aggressively into offering alternative channels and self-care options to customers. The carrier said the cuts would cost the company $165 million in charges for the fourth quarter of 2013.
CNet also reported this week that Sprint had laid off 330 “technical consultants,” closed 150 service and repair centers and shut down 55 of its “worst-performing retail stores” as part of its overall job reduction plans. The report noted that Sprint previously had as many as 2,500 technical consultants across its retail locations.
Sprint, which recently had a majority of its stock acquired by Japan’s Softbank for $21.6 billion, reported a mixed fourth quarter financial picture with results that came in a bit ahead of expectations, though still challenged. The carrier reported net losses of just over $1 billion during the quarter compared with net losses of $1.3 billion during the fourth quarter of 2012.
Sprint’s cutting of customer care positions would seem to run counter to a recent J.D. Power & Associates customer care survey, which had Sprint solidly in the No. 4 position among nationwide wireless operators, having slipped one position from a late 2013 survey.
Sprint’s prepaid brands fared better in the most recent survey, with Virgin Mobile and Boost Mobile in the No. 2 and No. 3 positions among no-contract providers.
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