MUMBAI: Zomato (now Eternal) has laid off about 500-600 employees working in customer support roles citing non-performance, sources said. Some of the impacted employees alleged that the company terminated the jobs without giving them any notice period. Zomato declined to comment.
The firm had hired over 1,500 people last year under its Zomato Associate Accelerator Programme (ZAAP) which essentially covers customer support functions. Employees working with the department are largely based out of Gurgaon and Hyderabad and are tasked with addressing customer issues. Employees alleged that the company had initially said that people working in customer support roles would be given the opportunity to change departments and move to other profiles. Some of Zomato’s employees took to social media platform Reddit, claiming that the layoffs have been going on in the company for the past few weeks.
Tech companies have been increasingly leaning on artificial intelligence (AI) to automate job functions and cut costs, impacting roles across departments, including customer support. Most of the customer support queries across several companies are today handled by AI powered bots. Startups like Paytm and Ola have also been shedding jobs and tapping into AI to save up on employee costs. Zomato which has moved beyond food delivery to expand into the cash guzzling quick commerce sector through its acquisition of Blinkit has reported a steep drop in consolidated profits to Rs 59 crore in the December quarter from Rs 138 crore in the year-ago period. In a separate exchange filing on Tuesday, Zomato said that it has approved a grant of 2,17,960 stock options to its eligible employees.