Santander brings call centres back to UK
Santander brings call centres back to UK
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Discussion

Puggit

Original Poster:

49,821 posts

278 months

Friday 8th July 2011
quotequote all
Not a big surprise - it's happened a few times in the past as well (Dell server support being one I can think of)

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-14073889

miniman

30,157 posts

292 months

Friday 8th July 2011
quotequote all
Interesting. It would be nice to think that we are starting to see a little more importance being placed on quality and value, than simply cost. With huge volumes of readily borrowable cash floating around, retaining good customers was of little importance. Perhaps now banks and other businesses will do more to hang on to good clients.

taylor172

833 posts

234 months

Friday 8th July 2011
quotequote all
audi have a call centre in ellesmere port. Personally id rather speak to someone in india than that bunch

Puggit

Original Poster:

49,821 posts

278 months

Friday 8th July 2011
quotequote all
My mother in law lost her mother a couple of weeks ago - when she rang up Santander in India she could not get the call centre script reader to understand what was happening.

She told him she was ringing up because the account holder was dead. The idiot at the other end called her by her mother's name and asked what the problem was - repeatedly.

Yes, she found a UK number and complained.

DonkeyApple

70,563 posts

199 months

Friday 8th July 2011
quotequote all
Puggit said:
Not a big surprise - it's happened a few times in the past as well (Dell server support being one I can think of)

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-14073889
I wonder what this bit of news is disguising?

SB10

558 posts

196 months

Friday 8th July 2011
quotequote all
Thank the fking lord. Any time i phone these muppets, i spend about 15-20minutes spelling out my name, address at least twice before then being told I have failed their security questions.

Bloody shambles of a set up!

jas xjr

11,309 posts

269 months

Friday 8th July 2011
quotequote all
Pay peanuts - get monkeys

Pay Indian peanuts- get Indian monkeys

What people fail to understand is that if you look to employ the cheapest available Indians , you will not get the best staff.

Caulkhead

4,938 posts

187 months

Friday 8th July 2011
quotequote all
jas xjr said:
Pay peanuts - get monkeys

Pay Indian peanuts- get Indian monkeys

What people fail to understand is that if you look to employ the cheapest available Indians , you will not get the best staff.
Makes sense, though I reckon I have a better chance of making an English monkey understand what I'm after than an Indian monkey. . . . . .

Countdown

49,519 posts

226 months

Friday 8th July 2011
quotequote all
SB10 said:
Thank the fking lord. Any time i phone these muppets, i spend about 15-20minutes spelling out my name, address at least twice before then being told I have failed their security questions.

Bloody shambles of a set up!
Sounds very much like my local Pizza takeaway smile

StoatInACoat

1,355 posts

215 months

Friday 8th July 2011
quotequote all
Thank god! Although you'll still have a machine telling you repeatedly to enter a telephone banking number that you don't have/they can't tell you.

madala

5,063 posts

228 months

Friday 8th July 2011
quotequote all
Thank the Lord for that....I had a rather difficult and annoying couple of hours with this Indian call centre.....really....they did not have a friggen clue and only one out of the three, yes three operatives that I was forced to talk to could actually speak reasonable English...the other two did not have a friggen clue and one actually inferred that I was a fruad....I was not a happy bunny.

Zaxxon

4,057 posts

190 months

Friday 8th July 2011
quotequote all
Caulkhead said:
Makes sense, though I reckon I have a better chance of making an English monkey understand what I'm after than an Indian monkey. . . . . .
I bet the English monkey has an eastern european accent smile

Elroy Blue

8,847 posts

222 months

Friday 8th July 2011
quotequote all
StoatInACoat said:
Thank god! Although you'll still have a machine telling you repeatedly to enter a telephone banking number that you don't have/they can't tell you.
^^^^ This.

I opened a savings account with this bunch. After losing all access to my money and transfers 'disappearing' for over a week, I closed it......with huge difficulty. How they actually survive as a business is beyond me.

rover 623gsi

5,230 posts

191 months

Friday 8th July 2011
quotequote all
this is a good move - and not just for the accent (it’s easy to joke about not being to understand Glaswegians or Brummiers or whoever) but because of the cultural differences. From a customer care perspective when I am speaking to someone on the phone I want to feel that the person I am talking understands me - not just the words.

As a customer I want to know that the operative at the other end of the line knows where I am coming from and can sympathise and empathise as appropriate - I don’t get that from foreign-based call centres.

DonkeyApple

70,563 posts

199 months

Friday 8th July 2011
quotequote all
Caulkhead said:
Makes sense, though I reckon I have a better chance of making an English monkey understand what I'm after than an Indian monkey. . . . . .
Tough call. Educated Indian or desperately uneducated Brit. If you want the Brits who can string a sentence together, understand what the fk their job is and have an ability to engage brain then you need to pay quite a bit. FD pay their 'ladies' quite well in order to get intellegent people who not just want to help but can actually help.

It's all about cost. If you spend 50 times more than the Indian operation then you can get really good people, but if you try and do it on minimum wage then I'd opt for the Indian every time.

minky monkey

1,566 posts

196 months

Friday 8th July 2011
quotequote all
Well, they moved from India to Burnley..

crankedup

25,764 posts

273 months

Friday 8th July 2011
quotequote all
You only need to look who is at the No1 spot for terrible customer service and then relate that to just a few of the posters comments in here. The C.E.O. said that they are working to improve customer service so its nice to see some action being taken.

Johnnytheboy

24,499 posts

216 months

Friday 8th July 2011
quotequote all
My understanding is that the savings to be made by transferring call centres to India are far less than they were a few years back.

Weak pound, plus indian wage inflation.

DonkeyApple

70,563 posts

199 months

Friday 8th July 2011
quotequote all
crankedup said:
You only need to look who is at the No1 spot for terrible customer service and then relate that to just a few of the posters comments in here. The C.E.O. said that they are working to improve customer service so its nice to see some action being taken.
Until Spain collapses and Santander whips all the client cash out of the UK to bankroll domestic holes. biggrin

All those old Abbey National clients about to use all their savings to bail out Pedro the debt ridden monkey. Still, they got their pieces of silver when they voted to convert it into a bank too weak to compete and pocket a few grand.

Caulkhead

4,938 posts

187 months

Friday 8th July 2011
quotequote all
DonkeyApple said:
Caulkhead said:
Makes sense, though I reckon I have a better chance of making an English monkey understand what I'm after than an Indian monkey. . . . . .
Tough call. Educated Indian or desperately uneducated Brit. If you want the Brits who can string a sentence together, understand what the fk their job is and have an ability to engage brain then you need to pay quite a bit. FD pay their 'ladies' quite well in order to get intellegent people who not just want to help but can actually help.

It's all about cost. If you spend 50 times more than the Indian operation then you can get really good people, but if you try and do it on minimum wage then I'd opt for the Indian every time.
You missed the point by a pretty impressive margin there! English monkey, versus Indian monkey, not educated monkey. smile