Santander Call Centres to be brought back from India to UK

olly300

The reason call centres are moving back to the UK is pure money.

In India they have to hire graduates to do the work, who quickly decide doing call centre work isn't a proper graduate job. So they have a high staff turn over. In addition this means the staff member doesn't care what they say to a customer as that customer is unlikely to call them twice due to how their shift patterns work.

In the UK they know if they set up in an area with high unemployment and pay the minimum wage, as long as they don't p*ss the staff off by moving their shifts around too much from week to week, they will keep the staff for a long time. Plus if the staff member is more mature they actually have more empathy, and try and treat the person on the other end of the phone properly.

It's much cheaper for a business in terms of wages to treat a customer properly the 1st time round then you have to pay 4/5 members of staff to pretend to deal with them, plus have that customer report you to a regulator.

JacksterD

Toe-Jam wrote: »

The UK is the new India. Underdeveloped, overpopulated and with families relying on handouts to feed themselves. If Queen Victoria could see us now. "One would not be amused"

Because people were highly developed and restricted themselves to small families in Victorian times? :undecided

dc110

olly300 wrote: »

In addition this means the staff member doesn't care what they say to a customer as that customer is unlikely to call them twice due to how their shift patterns work.

what?

The Indian call centre staff working on behalf of Santander work a shift pattern to 'fit in' with the UK opening hours. Surely they have as much chance of speaking to the same customer more than once as a UK employee working to an equivalent shift pattern.

DCFC79

olly300 wrote: »

The reason call centres are moving back to the UK is pure money.

not according to what i read at weekend as to why the santander call centres were closing. Reason given was due to customer complaints and same for lloyds call centres as the guy who was in charge of santander is now in charge of lloyds.

rockitup

Citibank is another that need to get rid of their Indian Call centres, They were okay to begin with but in the last 3 or 4 years have really gone downhill rapidly.

I would rather send a message on their site and wait 2 days for an answer that deal with the hopeless customer service staff they now have.

If it wasn't for the free US Dollar accounts I would have moved banks 3 years ago

td_007

Me thinks it is just a publicity stunt to try and cover the shoddy service they have been providing. A secure message via online banking portal requires 3 days to get a response...give me a break - not wonder I am not getting excited about getting UK call centres. It is essentially the company culture that drives the service it provides and Santander needs to overhaul its culture of service rather than blame its overseas call centres.

lowflyer

Having had to contact both Santander's India and UK customer support, I have nothing but frustration with the Indian contacts. mainly because of the restriction they have in dealing with issues - keep to the script.
The UK customer support has been mixed - probably 50% satisfactory. When it's been good it's been excellent, when bad it's not been their lack of knowledge (which was poor), it's been the total lack of interest, and courtesy.

So, it's all very well re-locating back to the UK, but the advisors need extensive training in Santander's procedures, products, and how to handle calls. If I need to call I want to be confident that the person has given me correct information, and will actually do what they say will do.

grasslands

I think Indian government does not allow more than 50% foreign direct investments into Indian companies.

If foreign companies have to do business in India then they have to share technology with the Indian partners (not sure).