CallingtheCape

Outsource Partner: Dialogue Group

Admiral Insurance is a UK general insurance business based in Cardiff, one of the top ten insurers in the UK. Admiral recently transferred its renewals business to Dialogue in Cape Town from an outsourcer in India. Currently running at 30 seats, Admiral expect to scale up to 125 seats by December 2004.

The quality of the agent-customer relationship has been a critical success factor in Admiral’s experience. Since the business was moved to Cape Town, Dialogue agents have been awarded agent of the month awards by Admiral on a number of occasions.

Henry Englehardt, Chief Executive, Admiral Group Limited:

IT is no secret that the Admiral Group outsources some of its calls South Africa. We outsource calls for after-sales service from 5pm to 10pm weekdays, and 10am to 6pm on Saturdays and Sundays. Why do we do this?

The truth of the matter is that we cannot get enough staff in South Wales to work evenings and weekends, even when we offer double-time pay, to properly serve our customers. So we need to outsource to give a competitive service.

We want everyone who talks with our customers to be knowledgeable and motivated. To achieve this offshore we insist on having at least two of our own people on-site at all times, to help with training and management.

South Africans have an excellent work ethos. Our evening calls transferred to SA mean they have to work until 2.30am. Despite the hour, they are energetic and keen to learn. So a firm trying to offer a better service to customers is caught in a bind. The answer is outsourcing.