Customer Service Jobs to Increase.
16 July 2008
Despite forecasts of economic downturn and a 2.2% drop in sales for Marks and Spencer last Christmas, most product and service providers are not looking to reduce their sales and service staff. The forecasted trend looks very healthy for this sector, with research from the Institute of Customer Service (ICS) predicting there will be more than 550,000 customer service jobs across the UK by 2014. In England this is an average annual growth of 2.8%, 3.2% for Scotland and 3.2% for Wales.
Whilst there was previously a trend for companies to base their call centres offshore, these companies are now returning from aboard in the wake of increasing demands from customers for local operations. Filling the available customer service positions may not be so easy, as it’s the second largest skills area in short supply.
Organisations are seeking ways to make customer service jobs more attractive with marketing initiatives, regular employee satisfaction surveys and ambitious career paths. “Right now career paths in customer service are a very strong way to go. Five years ago there weren’t a lot of companies who had customer service directors: having someone on the board who is responsible for customer services is a big change,” says Paul Cooper, Director of ICS.
Those looking for customer service positions in the retail sector will have two big name employers to choose from, Aldi and Waitrose. Waitrose has acquired four Woolworths sites in Clapham, Edgware Road, Chiswick and Islington which will create 700 jobs for the areas’ locals.
German food giant Aldi plans to spend £1,5bn on a five year UK expansion plan, increasing from 400 to 1,500 stores. According to the Sunday Times, Aldi plans to hire an extra 1,500 staff in Britain and Ireland over the next 12 months.
Both Waitrose and Aldi have graduate training and management training schemes for job seekers wanting a career in retail.
To find out more about recruitment trends in customer services, please see the latest issue of Recruiter Magazine
http://www.recruiter.co.uk/StaticPages/thisissue.html
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