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The New Zealand Herald reports Vodafone plans to trim staff numbers across the board and cut the customer service department by up to 100 jobs..

The proposal, outlined in an internal document obtained by the Herald, is part of a restructuring expected to bring 200 to 250 job cuts.

Vodafone says the average revenue per customer is falling and forecasts a two percent year-on-year revenue decline. The telco reported a $28 million full-year loss last year although some of that was down to costs associated with integrating the TelstraClear business.

There's a case, of sorts, for downgrading customer service. Some of Vodafone's leaner rivals, think of BigPipe and Skinny, offer little or stripped-back customer support then pass the savings on with lower prices.

It's not as if Vodafone is losing great customer support. Owen William's comments are typical of today's Twitter feed:

https://twitter.com/ow/status/557286696010539008

Williams is not alone:

https://twitter.com/hebehu/status/557295688459898880

Similar comments crop up in the Geekzone discussion on the cuts.

Vodafone's move is a further step along the path to telecommunications commodisation as telco margins continue to shrink.

The last word in the Herald story goes to Tuanz CEO Craig Young:

That's the one area that directly relates to users. But ... consumers will make a choice and if they end up getting bad service from one supplier then they've got plenty of other suppliers to go to.

This post first appeared at billbennett.co.nz as Looming customer service cuts at Vodafone

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