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In an endeavour to improve customer satisfaction, Santander UK Chief Executive Ana Botín has taken the decision this week to bring call centres back from India to the UK.
Actually, "to improve customer service" is possibly looking at the situation glass half full when perhaps it's actually half empty. More accurately, the move appears primarily motivated by a desire to reduce customer dissatisfaction.
Call centres were offshored in 2003 (when the banking operation was known as Abbey – acquired by Santander Group in 2004).
Interestingly, the FT reports that Santander UK's move follows a diktat by the UK's Financial Services Authority that banks publish complaint numbers for the first time in 2010, making Santander more visibly the most complained-about bank for the first half of the year, and second only to Barclays during the second half. Read more