Rivals back UK call centres after Aviva announces outsourcing plans

Aviva’s rivals have reaffirmed their commitment to having call centres in the UK, as the insurer announced it was outsourcing 200 roles from its motor claims handling team to India.

LV= claims director Martin Milliner said: “LV= doesn’t offshore any activities, either call centre or otherwise. At the moment we don’t have any plans to do so.

“If you offshore large chunks of your operation or certain aspects of it, sometimes you can have unintended consequences. Either you don’t have an intake of junior people new to the industry because you offshore that to some cheaper location, or you put a road block on career paths for people to progress if you take the more technical stuff away from the UK.”

A Saga spokesman said: “It’s important because that’s what people want, that’s what they expect a good company to do – provide employment in the UK. But more than that, they expect exceptional customer service.

“You can chase things to the bottom of the heap, and if that’s what others want to do that’s really a matter for them. For us we aim to be a quality provider, and we are only direct to consumers, so the interactions people have with our contact centre are exceptionally important to us as it is the driver for how people experience the brand.”

A broker said that Aviva’s move was short-sighted. Topaz Insurance Services director Richard Mikula said: “I don’t think it is going to save any money, I think it’s a window dressing exercise. It’s going to cost Aviva a fortune to train those people; it’s going to cost a fortune making these people redundant.

“It won’t affect brokers recommending Aviva, but it already has a knock-on effect to a certain degree with a lot of brokers. When you start to outsource claims to India, there is a language and an understanding barrier. A lot of clients and brokers alike don’t like dealing with call centres overseas.”