The Courier & Advertiser (Fife Edition)
Keeping the human touch
There has been an explosion in the number of contact centres located in Tayside and Fife over the past couple of decades and the sector is now a major local employer. Not only has the number of jobs increased, so has the complexity of the roles.
Workers require extensive training to deal with complicated customer requests and, in some cases, handle negotiations on behalf of their firm.
The best employees don’t just have the ability to communicate well, be personable and convey empathy.
They are also knowledgeable, organised and born problem-solvers.
This month’s Business Matters goes behind the doors of some of the largest contact centres in Tayside and Fife who have had to adapt their operations to dealing with a larger volume of digital inquiries.
Business reporter Jim Millar spoke with Theresa Slevin (page 4), who is well placed to comment on how the sector has evolved, having overseen
the growth of Arbroath-based Journeycall to become the UK’s largest transport contact centre.
Regular Business Matters writer Ian Forsyth caught up with Adam Taylor of VeriCall (page 6) who established a new contact centre in Kirkcaldy at the start of this month after a £1 million grant from Scottish Enterprise.
He plans to grow the Fife centre to 400 staff in just five years.
A firm that has already achieved this level of growth is Blairgowrie’s Castle Water (page 7), whose 375 staff address water needs throughout Britain after forming just five years ago.
Long-established Dundee contact centres BT and Tesco – which each employ around 1,300 people – give an insight to their extensive city operations on page 8 and 9.
Ian also spoke to Aviva (page 9), whose employees handled more than 115,000 home insurance claims from their Perth base last year.
Communication may have become more digital, but the contact centres in Courier Country know the importance of keeping the human touch.
Not only has the number of contact centre jobs increased, so has the complexity of the roles