Lloyds TSB is to stop routing its UK customers to its
Mumbai call centre, after claiming an automatic voice response
system has slashed personal calls by over a quarter.
The Indian call centre will now be closed and the staff
re-deployed. The bank said the automated system, introduced last
summer, was initially expected to cut calls to contact centre staff
by 8%, but that it had seen a 26% cut instead, meaning the 180
Mumbai staff were not needed to answer calls.
The bank has ten UK call centres, and the Mumbai centre was
operated as a call overflow site when the UK centres could not cope
with call volumes.
Many UK customers have complained about dealing with foreign
call centres, claiming there are language problems and a lack of
local knowledge about services and products.
But Lloyds TSB is adamant the end of re-routed calls to Mumbai
is purely down to technology efficiencies.
The bank is also introducing a phone service next month to allow
customers to ring their branch direct, further reducing call centre
traffic.
It has been reported that the Mumbai staff will be re-deployed
to other back-office functions. The bank announced it would be
closing its Peterborough processing centre last month, with the
loss of 245 jobs. Some of this work may be handled by some of the
Mumbai staff.
Lloyds TSB to close Peterborough processing
centre
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