Like many of the big banks, Abbey has operated call centers in a number of locations. However, its new call center in Belfast breaks new ground in the organization. Not only does it seek to maintain the high levels of service quality expected by the Bank, but it aims to foster a deeper relationship with existing clients using proactive outbound calls.
Emma Day, recruitment manager at Abbey, comments; "We have been setting up an out bound call service called "Outreach" which has been designed to build relations with our customer base in a much more proactive but sensitive manner."
The ‘Outreach’ call center in Belfast obviously needed a different type of call center operative if this project was to be a success. When designing these roles it soon became apparent that the high levels of skills, particularly the so-called ‘soft’ or social skills, needed in these roles were well in excess of those needed in a typical call center context. "We needed staff with the ability to open and build on conversations with different customers using our CRM platform as a base. These skills are far more frequently found in a sales environment than in a call center, yet we are not looking for "sales people" in this role," said Day.
Abbey approached SHL to design a selection process both for these roles, and also for the managerial roles that they reported to. The company, a worldwide leader in objective assessment, devised a series of role-play assessments in conjunction with Abbey. The role-plays placed applicants in realistic situations and then monitored their responses and reactions to these scenarios.
"These simulations are like most role-plays...but more so," says SHL consultant Anthony Gardner, their designer. "Essential to both is the chance to evaluate candidates’ ability in a realistic work context. What we were especially keen to assess on this occasion was candidates’ ability to adapt their style to different types of people, in a relatively short timeslot.”
The results of these role-plays gave Abbey a high degree of confidence that those applicants selected to work in the new Outreach Center would be able to build rapport with a wide range of individuals, proactively offer services and garner key information on customers and so meet the objective of strengthening the relationship between customers and the Bank.
Commenting on the results, Day said; "We have been really pleased with the way that these exercises have gone. They really capture the role, they are well scripted and our managers really like role-playing them.”