Insuring With Norwich Union Direct - Abroad Call Centres

[Just Chris]

Norwich Union cloesed it's Liverpool call centre a few months ago, shifting all the operations based there to India!

[ginge]

Nelly, same as red death the treatment they give you internally is just as bad. I have to deal with the initial stages of liability for the direct policies and IB claims, and the amount of blind call transfers i get it quite stupid, then when u get a claim number you find the previous handler locked in the claim so it next to impossible to view the claim.

 

From personal experience I would always avoid insuring any product with NU and have found directline to be incredibly good in the job they do.

[girlynutnut]

Another NU employee here!! I really understand the problem that people have with Indian call centres. My brother has just been made redundant from his job as an IT programmer at NU because the work is being outsourced to India. On a daily basis I have to deal with the NUD travel sales staff and the language barrier does cause headaches, especially when you're trying to resolve complicated issues around customer complaints.

 

That said, the staff in India are still learning and like any new venture there's bound to be some problems. Hopefully the new coaching roles will make a difference. I don't think the Indian call centres are really any worse than the UK ones but when there's a problem it's easier to say "oh, that's because it's an indian call centre"

 

Incidentally, I must correct the assumption that NU has off-shored all it's claims operations. There's still a huge site servicing corporate partners such as Saga, Barclays, Lloyds TSB, etc for creditor, household and travel claims in Sussex. The partners simply wouldn't let NU muck around with their brand image by having anybody other than fine English staff answering the phone!

[mooreda]

Hang on - I'm sorry girlynut I have to strongly disagree with you - Indian Call Centres ARE indeed worse than that in the UK - it's a proven fact. In addition they are taking many thousands of jobs from this Country.

 

The whole India thing is beginning to collapse hence why many firms are steadily bringing the operations back because customers will not stand for such appalling customer service.

[Kneale]

Norwich Union cloesed it's Liverpool call centre a few months ago, shifting all the operations based there to India!

 

I worked there!

[xrchris]

Norwich Union cloesed it's Liverpool call centre a few months ago, shifting all the operations based there to India!

 

Strange, i am currently sat here with a memo from NU telling me about their improved Personal Motor Claims Customer Ownership teams based in Liverpool and Pune.

[Kneale]

Strange, i am currently sat here with a memo from NU telling me about their improved Personal Motor Claims Customer Ownership teams based in Liverpool and Pune.

 

Norwich Union had two sites in Liverpool City Centre. A claims centre, which is still open, and a Customer Services centre, which was closed at the end of October.

[xrchris]

The whole India thing is beginning to collapse hence why many firms are steadily bringing the operations back because customers will not stand for such appalling customer service.

 

That isnt so, while a few companies have rejigged their operations others such as Barclaycard (who just announced this) are moving out to India.

[demon_x_slash]

I 'heard' that a lot of companies were bringing their call centres back to the UK because the boom in India meant that people out there were actually getting high-level qualifications in call centre management/operations/telephony. More qualified staff mean more pay - I 'heard' that it was starting to become cheaper to employ people over here because they weren't as qualified as the Indian staff!

I can't remember where I heard it, hence the '', so...

[Kneale]

Powergen, LloydsTSB, Dell and Esure have all brought their call centres back to the UK.

[xrchris]

I wasnt intending my previous post to be a definitive statement on offshoring i was just trying to point out that 'The whole India thing is beginning to collapse' isnt quite true. The flow is in both directions.

 

Call centres as a whole are nothing more than the service industry's equivalent of factory farming in my opinion and is more about industry than providing any great service.

[Kneale]

I wasnt intending my previous post to be a definitive statement on offshoring i was just trying to point out that 'The whole India thing is beginning to collapse' isnt quite true. The flow is in both directions.

 

Call centres as a whole are nothing more than the service industry's equivalent of factory farming in my opinion and is more about industry than providing any great service.

 

They're the factories of our generation!

[RedDeath]

Hang on - I'm sorry girlynut I have to strongly disagree with you - Indian Call Centres ARE indeed worse than that in the UK - it's a proven fact. In addition they are taking many thousands of jobs from this Country.

 

The whole India thing is beginning to collapse hence why many firms are steadily bringing the operations back because customers will not stand for such appalling customer service.

 

Don't agree with you at all on that one mooreda. Indian call centres are not necessarily worse than the uk ones, far from it. If anything it has been proven that they are far more efficient and commited to their jobs than their uk counterparts. I would rather deal with NU in India than BT in the uk anytime!!!!!!

[GetYourHandsOfMyStack]

hmmm, interesting stuff - have just strayed from doing my bank charges and the NUD thread caught my eye as ive just come home from work in an NU call centre. Have to say i thoroughly agree with bengee about staff in india being pretty much just as good as the guys in the uk - and just as bad. Yes the fact that there's a bit of a language barrier is a problem, but having listened in to many calls which ive passed through to india, the biggest problem is that once a customer realises theyve been put through to india, it often sounds like they really dont want to understand whats been said purely because of the whole stigma which goes along with 'offshore' call centres, and as a result become abusive. Either that or they wont really try to communicate properly themselves because they assume they wont be understood anyway. I'm not suggesting for a minute any of you loverly people on here would do this, all im saying is if we spent all night on the phone being talked down to we'd all sound pretty indifferent and monotonous as well, which i think accounts for a fair part of why the customer service there is percieved to be not as good as that from uk centres - seriously, some customers ive heard seem to get a real kick out of upsetting people, and advisors in india take a lot of abuse, theyre also under real pressure from their managers to hit targets and from what ive heard they really crack the whip over there. The difference between the treatment i get at work and the treatment someone in india doing the same job as i get is monumental - alledgedly!(gotta cover my back a bit there -you never know...) Having said that, some of the customer service ive heard from india is also pretty shocking, almost laughable sometimes, on the whole tho, most of the workers over there are pretty with it. I will also say that the same is very true of workers over here, with some pretty bad cs at times. Apparently a lot of money is saved by using offshore centres, but i dont know where this goes cos the bonus i just waited all year for was rubbish! bah! Generally though - call centres are crap wherever they're based - if you really want to save yourself the hassle and a whole bag of cash, do your insurance online - you wont have to pay for a call centre anywhere! (most insurers will give you about 20% off for insuring online!!) and if youre getting ridiculous prices on qtes that generally means the company doest want to insure you anyway - companies all have certain types of risks that they want to avoid, but have to offer a qte for everyone, so if theyre not interested they'll just price themselves out of competition. The best sites are the big price comparison ones - they give you an indication of whos interested and who's not. Be warned tho - companies who dont have any call centres at all arent always that great - price may be good but when you get a bit confused theres no-one there to help you out...sometimes its good to talk to someone...specially me..

[RedDeath]

cos the bonus i just waited all year for was rubbish!

 

bump

[GetYourHandsOfMyStack]

bump?

[RedDeath]

yeah, same! Looking for a bigger bonus than what i acutally got!

[GetYourHandsOfMyStack]

i know, kind of feel a bit cheated - but then i should really have expected that, when i first asked about it a while ago, was told not to expect anything, and then whatever i got would be a bonus, but surely it is a bonus?! ho hum...

[girlynutnut]

Ditto RedDeath, bust a gut this year and got the lowest bonus for 5 years. Was told "we have to show the shareholders we're controlling our expenses"!!!! Would have thought my brother losing his job to India was saving them some money! Feeling rather anti-NU today....

[Kneale]

hmmm, interesting stuff - have just strayed from doing my bank charges and the NUD thread caught my eye as ive just come home from work in an NU call centre. Have to say i thoroughly agree with bengee about staff in india being pretty much just as good as the guys in the uk - and just as bad. Yes the fact that there's a bit of a language barrier is a problem, but having listened in to many calls which ive passed through to india, the biggest problem is that once a customer realises theyve been put through to india, it often sounds like they really dont want to understand whats been said purely because of the whole stigma which goes along with 'offshore' call centres, and as a result become abusive. Either that or they wont really try to communicate properly themselves because they assume they wont be understood anyway. I'm not suggesting for a minute any of you loverly people on here would do this, all im saying is if we spent all night on the phone being talked down to we'd all sound pretty indifferent and monotonous as well, which i think accounts for a fair part of why the customer service there is percieved to be not as good as that from uk centres - seriously, some customers ive heard seem to get a real kick out of upsetting people, and advisors in india take a lot of abuse, theyre also under real pressure from their managers to hit targets and from what ive heard they really crack the whip over there. The difference between the treatment i get at work and the treatment someone in india doing the same job as i get is monumental - alledgedly!(gotta cover my back a bit there -you never know...) Having said that, some of the customer service ive heard from india is also pretty shocking, almost laughable sometimes, on the whole tho, most of the workers over there are pretty with it. I will also say that the same is very true of workers over here, with some pretty bad cs at times. Apparently a lot of money is saved by using offshore centres, but i dont know where this goes cos the bonus i just waited all year for was rubbish! bah! Generally though - call centres are crap wherever they're based - if you really want to save yourself the hassle and a whole bag of cash, do your insurance online - you wont have to pay for a call centre anywhere! (most insurers will give you about 20% off for insuring online!!) and if youre getting ridiculous prices on qtes that generally means the company doest want to insure you anyway - companies all have certain types of risks that they want to avoid, but have to offer a qte for everyone, so if theyre not interested they'll just price themselves out of competition. The best sites are the big price comparison ones - they give you an indication of whos interested and who's not. Be warned tho - companies who dont have any call centres at all arent always that great - price may be good but when you get a bit confused theres no-one there to help you out...sometimes its good to talk to someone...specially me..

 

How is NUD? I hope everyone is missing the Liverpool centre!!

[Nelly75]

Ditto RedDeath, bust a gut this year and got the lowest bonus for 5 years. Was told "we have to show the shareholders we're controlling our expenses"!!!! Would have thought my brother losing his job to India was saving them some money! Feeling rather anti-NU today....

 

Sorry to all NU's employees that bonus not good this year. Pretty sickening after the amount of UK jobs they have shed over past few years, and the fact they pay low wages anyway. Started at NU and have now worked for 4 top insurers - moving every couple of years is the only way you can get anywhere near a decent salary

 

Just wondering if any of you know if NU pays any bonuses to their Indian staff? Spare a thought for them!

 

They are obviously now looking at the cost of Indian staff as a benchmark - any way they can cut the UK staff costs further they will. A thoroughly ruthless organisation - wonder if the board of directors had their bonuses cut? Sure I know the answer to that already!

[mooreda]

RBS Insurance (Churchill/Direct Line) appear to be the best - they have had at least a 10% bonus for the past 5 years. Obviously NU have lost many many customers or are getting too greedy (I wonder what the Senior Managers/Chief Exec's bonus was?) hhmmm

[Kneale]

NUD had a brilliant bonus. I used to earn £400-£500 a month bonus on top of my basic. Then they changed it to an annual bonus which could have been £1000 max per year. Thankfully they made me redundant and their redundancy package is very good!

[Guest Battleaxe]

Hah, we cancelled all our insurances with NU because of the work going offshore. We will no longer deal with any company who has call centres out of England. Two cars, house, Accident policies and we saved a heap of money switching.

 

it is the only way we can protest and hope that these companies bring the work back into the country

[xrchris]

Mooreda how do RBS base their staff bonuses? On how many quotes an individual member converts into business or just a %age of how the group as a whole does?