First Trust Call Centre in Belfast wins top award

First Trust Bank’s Call Centre, based at its headquarters in Belfast, was celebrating recently, as it became the first company - and bank - in the United Kingdom to achieve the Qualicert Service Certification.

The award, which is made by the SGS Group, the world’s largest international certification body, measured the service the Call Centre provided its customers including key areas such as courtesy, responsiveness, accuracy of information, through to confidentiality and security.

“The staff who work here in the Call Centre play an important part in delivering a professional and efficient service to all our customers,” Una McDaid, First Trust’s Call Centre Manager explained. “This accreditation officially recognises our commitment to quality customer care and we are really delighted to be the first company – and bank - in the UK to receive it.”

Established in 1995 to centralise routine telephone calls from a number of branches, by the year 2000 the Call Centre was celebrating taking its millionth call. Seven years on that initial service has been developed to include a wide range of important customer services.

First Trust handles approximately 5,000 calls per day on a wide range of enquiries. These include customer calls relating to internet and telephone banking services as well as general customer enquiries. In addition the Call Centre also supports personal lending by telephone which has proven another big success.

Kieran Bennett, First Trust Bank’s General Manager said: “The dedication and commitment of the staff, coupled with the support provided by BT, have been key factors in achieving this accreditation.

“Working as a team to handle enquirers we have created the time for our branch colleagues to focus on providing a better and more personal service by freeing them to help our customers in the branch itself.

“We are all very proud of the Call Centre’s achievements as it has become a core feature of the way we deliver our services to our customers and we will continue to build on this success.”

First Trust Bank is part of the AIB Group that employs 31,000 people and operates principally in Ireland, United Kingdom, United States, Poland and Asia.

The SGS Group is recognised by the Department of Trade & Industry as a UK Accreditation Service and is endorsed by the Call Centre Association in the UK.

(SP)