'Watching this show to get a grounded and rounded view of one of Britain’s most important industries is like asking someone to watch ‘I’m a Celebrity’ for outback survival tips' - Sandra Busby
Contact centres are ‘highly professional operations’ employing 30,000 and contributing £400m to the Welsh economy, the head of the sector’s industry body said yesterday.
Sandra Busby, managing director of the Welsh Contact Centre Forum, said the “antics” of BBC Three’s The Call Centre are not representative of the sector.
“If you’ve seen the television show the whole nation seems to be talking about at the moment, chances are your opinions of contact centres will be coloured by the antics of larger than life Nev Wilshire and his staff,” Ms Busby said.
“But watching this show to get a grounded and rounded view of one of Britain’s most important industries is like asking someone to watch ‘I’m a Celebrity’ for outback survival tips.”
She added: “It’s worth remembering that the show has been put together primarily to entertain, not to inform. There’s clearly less comedy value in showing a rigorous recruitment process than there is in corralling new starters into a karaoke sing-along.
“Away from the glare of the cameras, there is a lot of less glamorous hard work going on which has led to much-needed job creation in the Swansea area.”
Ms Busby said there are nearly 200 contact centres in Wales employing 30,000 employees “earning a decent wage with real chances of career progression.”
She added: “At the last count, the contribution to the Welsh economy was £400m per annum. At a UK-wide level, contact centres are hugely important to the economy with over 1 million people working in them.”
She said that only a small proportion of contact centres in Wales are involved in making outbound calls, as seen in the TV show, and the sector in Wales is made up of a “huge variety” of employers.
“Often Welsh contact centres are working in the highly professional and regulated areas of financial and professional services. Some of the biggest companies based in Wales like Admiral, Virgin, Barclays and HSBC are anchored here thanks to their contact centre operations,” she said.
Principality Building Society’s contact centre, which employs 55, is celebrating 10 years at the heart of the Cardiff high street.
The contact centre receives 5,000 phone calls and more than 300 emails a week from customers, and all staff must go through a rigorous four-month training process before they are able to work in the contact centre.
Julie-Ann Haines, customer director at Principality, said: “We are a very customer-focused organisation, a fact confirmed by both staff and the members we serve, and our contact centre is a great example of how well we are doing this.
“Over the last 10 years it has gone from strength to strength and is a complete contrast to the parody of the BBC show.
“Our contact centre, along with our branch staff, represent the face of Principality, they are the people that regularly speak to customers on a one-to-one basis and are trained to the highest standards to ensure that they give the best possible service.”
In the last four years the British Gas contact centre in Cardiff has won more than 24 industry awards, including World Contact Centre Awards. The centre prides itself in having very high staff retention, in contrast to popular perceptions of the sector.
Lynda Campbell, regional director for British Gas in Wales said: “Four years ago, we decided to take a new approach to recruitment and training for our 1,300 strong team in Cardiff.
“More staff were leaving us than we wanted and this meant recruitment was very time consuming. Now we hire the smile and train the skill, we want to find people who want to help our customers day in, day out.
“So far this year we have received 1,400 job applications and we have taken on 20 people so far. Now when people leave us, the majority do so because of a change in lifestyle and our attrition rate is very low, which leads the contact centre industry.”
One contact centre company that requires a high level of staff training and sensitivity is Connect Assist in Nantgarw, which operates call centres on behalf of charities – including from this month the Royal British Legion.
The £3m turnover business recruited former members of the services to man the new operation, which provides practical care, advice and support to serving members of the Armed Forces, veterans of all ages and their families.
Ms Busby pointed out that only a few years ago commentators were sounding the “death knell” for contact centres in Wales.
“The trend by organisations to offshore their operations was hugely damaging, but the Welsh Contact Centre Forum worked to ensure this pain wasn’t felt in the long term.
“We worked tirelessly to encourage contact centres back to Wales from places like India, confident that our experienced and flexible people and advanced infrastructure would win out over apparent cost-savings in the medium term.”
She added: “For contact centres to continue to operate successfully in Wales, they need access to great people. This is proving to be the case and the Forum’s role is to ensure best practice is achieved across the industry in terms of customer service, career progression, technology and innovation and HR practices.”
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