Sky has announced plans to cut 2,000 jobs at its customer service centers and close three of its UK contact centers.
"We're transforming our business to deliver quicker, simpler and more digital customer service. Our customers increasingly want choice, to speak to us on the phone when they need us most and the ease of managing everyday tasks digitally,"
A Sky spokesperson said of the announcement.
The Comcast-owned media and telecom giant has said the move is part of a plan to switch its capabilities as customer preferences change.
A Cold Calculation on Contact Centers
The closure of the three sites—Stockport, Sheffield, and Leeds—will reduce Sky's contact center footprint in the UK from 10 to seven, and the cuts will affect 7 per cent of its total workforce.
Sky has billed the planned closures as something to make the company "future-ready" as it shifts from dealing with customers over the phone to digital communications.
This move is motivated by the company expecting its calls to drop from 25 million to 17 million annually in the next few years.
As a result, the company says it plans to build a new center of excellence, which will see a multimillion-pound investment being made at its Livingston site to adapt to an increasingly digital world.
"We're investing in a new center of excellence for customer service, alongside cutting-edge digital technology to make our service seamless, reliable, and available 24/7," the spokesperson explained.
Although many in the industry have been insisting that voice as a medium is evolving, the latest announcement may come as an unwelcome surprise for its proponents.
Is Voice in Trouble?
Sky's move is the materialization of a trend many in the industry have been seeing: the declining medium of voice.
This is for a number of reasons, but principally for Sky, is consumer preference.
A 2024 survey of 2,000 people from price comparison company Uswitch found that nearly 70% of 18-34's prefer a text to a phone call.
As a result, companies have been focusing more on integrating new omnichannel capabilities that help expand their ability to connect to their customers via their chosen communication platform.
