Veritas Language Solutions - Taking the initiative to bring the contact centre industry back to the UK

Sharon Stephens and Rachel Bryan, directors of leading translation and interpretation company Veritas Language Solutions Ltd, are setting up a multilingual contact centre service, available to UK businesses.

Veritas Talk, which will open at the beginning of April, will bring business to the UK by taking calls from foreign countries with operators who are fully fluent in the relevant native languages. Initially the centre will offer services in Spanish, German, Italian, French, Polish, Romanian and Portuguese, but a wider range of languages will be available as demand increases.

The service will target UK companies who operate overseas. They will be able to redirect all foreign customer service calls to a UK call centre, with an emphasis on high quality customer service. The recent move by many British companies to relocate their call centres overseas has led to a poorer quality of service and dissatisfied customers, with only 4% of people claiming to have had a good experience of call centres (YouGov survey 2007). Veritas Talk will aim to counter the negative attitude towards call centres by ensuring a high standard of service. Veritas will guarantee its clients operators who are native speakers of the language in which they answer calls, and have lived in the relevant countries for significant periods of time. This will mean that they are up to date with cultural and social issues in the country they deal with.

Commercial director Sharon Stephens says “Veritas has always had quality at the heart of its operations. Just as we insist on very high standards for all our translators, our call centre staff will face the same rigorous requirements. It is important that they are proficient in the language and cultural understanding of the country they are answering, so that first-class customer service is ensured. Our aim is that foreign customers who use the service won’t even know that their call is being answered in the UK.”

Call centre operators are often the main means of communication between a company and its customers, and therefore a good quality service is vital in creating strong customer relations. Companies that use call centres abroad are also more likely to expose their customers to the risk of financial crime. This is because it is very difficult for the Financial Services Authority to regulate operations carried out overseas. Veritas Talk will provide a service that operates solely in the UK, reducing risk for companies and customers alike. “With Veritas Talk our clients can be assured that all operations will function under UK laws and standards.”

Many big British firms, such as Natwest, Powergen and Esure, are now offering the guarantee of UK call centres in an attempt to win back dissatisfied customers. This is evidence of the growing importance of strong customer service, not just for UK customers, but for all customers worldwide. And with increased standards, call centres are attracting better quality of staff. According to recent research, call centres are increasingly drawing in staff with degrees and other desirable qualifications, due to the growing complexity of many products. Veritas Talk will be following this trend and employing highly skilled staff, most of whom will have a bachelor’s degree or higher. This quality service, operated by highly skilled staff, will set a new standard for international customer relations.

Veritas Talk are leading the way in multilingual customer service and can offer UK businesses a range of language services, no matter which language you want to operate from.

19th March 2010