M&S upgrades call centre operations

Marks & Spencer has upgraded its call centre operations to support the largest credit card launch in Europe.

The retailer signed a three-year deal with Cable & Wireless to expand its call centre to three sites accommodating 750 agents to deal with customer queries over the introduction of its new '&more' credit and loyalty card.

The deal is part of a £60m investment in the new card, which will initially see around 2.6 million store card customers targeted to switch to cards.

The new centre includes network computer telephony integration, which identifies customers by their account and PIN details and provides agents with customer account information before the call is answered.

Skills-based routing directs customer calls to the most appropriate agents trained to handle the query type. Networked interactive voice response technology will ensure customers carrying out straightforward transactions such as balance checks won't have to speak to an agent, which will reduce costs.

'We need to be prepared for prompt call handling to cope with the high level of demand from customers either declining the credit card, activating their new card or asking for information,' said an M&S spokesman.

The new network-based contact centre will see M&S adding two new sites - one in Preston and one in Mumbai, India - to its existing call centre in Chester to create a single, flexible customer service operation.

'We need a system that will cope with calls efficiently in a very intense time frame,' said the M&S spokesman.

M&S says the store decided to 'reinvigorate its charge card base' after sales on its store card declined following its decision to accept generic credit cards in April 2000.

The retailer rolled out a pilot in South Wales across 10 stores using the combined credit and loyalty card. Results from the trial showed that 12 per cent of customers chose to opt out of the new card. On this basis, M&S are expecting around 300,000 customers to stick with the existing store card.