Posts tagged call centres
Norwich Union: the Last Days of the Raj?
Mar 3rd
Norwich Union’s parent company, Aviva, may be about to pull out of its Indian call centre operations, according to a report in the Sunday Telegraph.
Whether this marks the end of home insurance claims staff with no idea what an immersion heater is, or if Aviva are finally getting the message that UK customers don’t like being put through to Chennai whenever they have a question that needs answering.
Looking back on my post a little over a year ago, its fascinating how things have changed. Back then Norwich Union were sending another 1,000 jobs out to the subcontinent. Now they’re bringing them back.
And I mentioned that we had 300 employees – we’re well past 400 now and another new crop are starting this week. All based in the UK, of course, and if you do have trouble understanding them, all you need to do is larn yarself Norfolk, bor.
Norwich Union’s Indian Merry Go Round
Jan 31st
Poor old Norwich Union. It seems that once again their desire to shift as many jobs to Madras as possible has landed them with trouble.
Now it seems that they’ve been forced to move back a few jobs to Norwich, because their Indian household claims staff didn’t understand “cultural differences”. Particular mention has been made of the ‘graduate level’ staff not knowing what an immersion heater does. Presumably, given the rather drastic steps taken, there was no possibility of them being trained either. I suppose they don’t teach basic plumbing and heating on Eastenders.
James Evans, NU’s Media Relations Director, was in forthright mood:
“What we do as a company is see what works and see what we could do better. At the end of the day we don’t want to annoy customers, who we want it to be a good experience for. If something doesn’t work, there’s no point persevering with it.”
But they’re still offshoring another 1,000 jobs to India this year, despite the fact that their own research revealed 51% of their customers were ‘appalled’ by overseas call centres. Now that’s what I call listening to your customers!
If you want to be sure that your home insurance to be handled by someone who isn’t confused by the massive cultural differences between home heating systems, then you could do worse than give us a call on 0800 089 0203, where all of our staff are still based in Norfolk, and know all about household insurance matters. Some of them even watch Eastenders.