From: John 
Newsgroups: uk.finance
Subject: Re: Which banks have all their call centres in the UK?
Date: Sat, 11 Feb 2006 21:20:46 +0000

On Sat, 11 Feb 2006 17:45:37 GMT, Ronald Raygun
 wrote:

>Jim Ley wrote:
>
>> On Sat, 11 Feb 2006 12:16:23 GMT, Ronald Raygun
>>  wrote:
>> 
>>>Jim Ley wrote:
>>>> Eh?  Why do I want to talk to some shop assistant who might be a step
>>>> above the Asda ones next door, but still.
>>>
>>>If you're trying to imply that call centre staff are all highly trained
>>>highly experienced senior staff who are in every imaginable way superior
>>>to anyone you might expect to find in your local branch, I think they've
>>>hypnotised you.
>> 
>> No, I'm suggesting they're just as incompetent but you can talk to
>> them from the comfort of your own home.
>
>I don't see the relevance of home comfort.  In what way does phoning
>the call centre from home differ from phoning the branch from home?

Call Centres are used to dealing with telephone calls constantly and
have more experience of communication over the phone (supposedly)
unless you're unlucky enough to be patched through to one in Bombay
and you can't understand the accent.

Local branches are better for dealing with people in person or over
the counter not over the phone.

>Oh, perhaps you mean that the branch will be staffed only during
>working hours, and the call centre more of the time, and so you'd
>have to phone from the discomfort of your place of employment?
>I don't see that making a lot of difference.
>
>And I certainly don't see how I was expected to read that into your
>"but still".  Perhaps you accidentally for
>
>>>At least with a local trainee, you know who it is and can complain
>>>about him/her to the local manager, though that's unlikely to be
>>>necessary.
>> 
>> You're talking as if the local manager actually knows something, most
>> of those retired years ago.
>
>Be that as it may, he is nevertheless responsible to you so the
>initial buck stops with him.  Also, despite standards having
>dropped, I'd still expect him, even today, to know a bit more
>than your average call centre operative.

You are not likely to be able to speak with a branch manager whenever
you need to over the phone, more likely one of the assistants in the
branch, and it would be far better to speak with someone in a call
centre over the phone IMHO who is trained to deal with telephone
calls, not mainly dealing with people in person within the branch.

>>>The trouble with call centres is that, if you need to phone again
>>>to follow up on an existing matter, you're unlikely to speak to
>>>the same person twice, and have to explain everything again.  With
>>>a local branch, you can speak to the person you know has been dealing
>>>with your problem before, and who is "on the case".
>> 
>> You mean they're not able to deal with the issue in a single instance?
>> That shows the  poor training surely?
>
>Not necessarily.  It might be a matter which is inherently incapable
>of being resolved in a single interaction, e.g. if it depends on
>action by a third party, and if you don't want them to phone you back
>because you don't want to hang around waiting for them to.  "Don't
>call me, I'll call you".

If the people in the call centre can't deal with your call which is
unlikely they would still be able to put you through to someone who
can as quickly as possible or to get an answer for you from someone
else very quickly.

John