Virgin Media O2 creates Newcastle team to tackle repeat customer calls
October 6, 2026 10.33 Europe/London By Julian Clover


Virgin Media O2 has established a 150-strong customer service team in Newcastle dedicated to handling repeat contacts, as the operator continues efforts to improve its customer service performance.

The new hub follows an internal review that found around half of repeat contacts were generated by a relatively small group of callers. These included customers with complex or extended problems, vulnerable customers requiring additional support, and nuisance or spam calls.

Rather than passing customers with continuing problems between different agents, the Newcastle team will provide greater continuity and end-to-end case management. Staff will receive additional training to support vulnerable customers and will have greater flexibility over the time spent resolving individual cases.

Nuisance and spam calls will also be directed to the team, with Virgin Media O2 saying this should free capacity elsewhere in its customer service operation and reduce waiting times.

“We found that almost half of repeat calls were being driven by a small subset of customers,” said Chief Operating Officer Alan Stott. “Through launching this new team of agents in Newcastle, we’ll be able to ringfence these calls so that those repeat callers benefit from a dedicated advisor better equipped to help them.”

The initiative forms part of a wider customer service programme announced by chief executive Lutz Schüler in February 2025. Virgin Media O2 says customer complaints have subsequently fallen by more than 50% year-on-year.

Technology is also playing an increasing role in the programme. The operator recently introduced an AI voice agent on selected customer service calls, initially focusing on routine broadband faults, while its Lumi AI system provides information and prompts to human advisors.

Virgin Media O2 says the use of AI to reduce unnecessary call transfers prevented more than 1.3 million transfers during 2025, equivalent to more than 400,000 hours of customer call time.

The Newcastle operation sits alongside a separate specialist UK team established for particularly complex cases, as the operator combines increased automation for routine enquiries with more intensive human support for customers whose problems cannot be resolved at first contact.