A leading British retail bank was planning a critical tech migration from their legacy system to a new platform. To offer customers the support they might need during the transition, Firstsource was asked to provide a contingency contact center of 270 Full Time Employees (FTEs) for four months to boost the client’s own telephone banking team of 1,000. 

1. UK retail bank responds to
customer service crisis
with fast ramp of 750 FTEs
CASE STUDY

2. A leading British retail bank was planning a critical
tech migration from their legacy system to a new
platform.
To offer customers the support they might need
during the transition, Firstsource was asked to
provide a contingency contact center of 270 Full
Time Employees (FTEs) for four months to boost
the client’s own telephone banking team of 1,000.
BACKGROUND

3. The migration did not go as planned. The bank’s
systems crashed.
Unable to access their accounts, thousands of
customers got on their phones and contact centers
were inundated.
THE CHALLENGE
£
£

4. The client and Firstsource teams needed to work
together with urgency and agility to:
• Ramp up the number of contact center personnel
available to support customers
• Advise on how to handle the trickiest of calls
• Support and motivate associates through abusive
calls and difficult shifts
• Ensure they did everything they could to keep
customers on side
THE CHALLENGE
£
£

5. Problems persisted for six weeks, with new
challenges arising daily – some customers were
given access to other customers’ accounts and, as
news of the issue spread, fraudsters targeted the
bank.
NEW CHALLENGES
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6. FIRSTSOURCE SOLUTION
We adopted a collaborative, all-hands-on-deck approach
to help the client at this critical time.
• Implementing fast-track recruitment: within days, we
sourced an additional 436 contact- center personnel.
Within 12 weeks, the headcount grew to 750.
• Investing in 13 additional support and quality control
roles to ensure the best possible outcomes for
customers and the wellbeing of contact-center staff.
• Committing over $93k to incentives that encouraged
staff to return to work each day and stay motivated.
£

7. THE SOLUTION INCLUDED
• Providing support in areas beyond the scope of the
original project such as specialist fraud support,
business banking and social media management.
• Extending the duration of support: telephone banking
for an additional five months, fraud support for a year.
• Funding a team to run a Workforce Management
Excellence project to improve resource planning and
make schedule adherence easier for the client so they
could focus on their customers.
£

8. SOCIAL MEDIA SUPPORT
15 dedicated Firstsource advisers handled 3,000
responses per week using pre-approved copy.
Responses were monitored by team leaders and
the client to ensure that speed and stress did not
result in any compromise to quality or compliance.
£

9. KEY ACHIEVEMENTS
• Speed of scaling: support exceeded scope
>180% within months
• Full schedule adherence in difficult
circumstances
• Quality Assurance scores 95%+
• A true partnership: Firstsource started as
tactical resource provider but became a
trusted advisor
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10. BUSINESS IMPACT
750
associates hired and onboarded in 12 weeks
20%
reduction in average handling time
3,000
social media comments handled each week
£

11. EXCEEDING EXPECTATIONS
The teams responded with outstanding speed and
professionalism. They did everything possible to
mitigate long-term damage. Rapid scaling meant
that more advisers were able to help more
customers.
The growth of the scope from telephone banking
to include business banking and fraud
management was of course needs-must, but
Firstsource’s ability to deliver under pressure
earned them the trust and respect of the client.
£

12. “A challenging but totally amazing year,
demonstrating just how collaborative outsourcing
partnerships should work. I cannot thank the
Firstsource team enough for your hard work and
dedication.”
Client Project Manager
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13. What’s your challenge?
Let’s work together to solve it.
To learn how we can help create value for BFSI
companies, visit our Contact page
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