Tighter regulations and compliance fuel growth and expansion for Manchester-based call centre

CALLCARE, the UK’s leading call centre service specialist, is due to double its workforce to 200 staff over the next few months. It follows changes in compliance and regulations in a number of sectors such as legal, finance, and HR and personnel – all of which are served by CALLCARE.

CALLCARE, which is investing £500,000 into the recruitment drive for its Manchester operations centre, provides 24/7, outsourced call handling facilities to a wide range of industries including financial services, healthcare, legal, construction, hospitality and the public sector. The firm has experienced increased interest from several sectors following a surge in the number of businesses who need to ensure that they remain compliant with their regulatory bodies and maintain the highest standards of customer service. CALLCARE has already seen a sharp rise in turnover from £3 million to £7 million in the last 3 years.

With over 56,000 firms now regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), CALLCARE attributes its recent demand to a sharp rise in the number of new regulatory procedures being implemented particularly in this sector. This has led to an increased need for CALLCARE’s services to help firms meet independent bodies’ regulations, including the FCA and Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA).

David Bate, managing director at CALLCARE, said: “Professional services firms in all sectors are under increasing pressure to adhere to tightened regulation and compliance, which are continuing to serve the best interests of consumers. CALLCARE has seen more firms wanting to not only maintain, but excel in their audit procedures, in which we have tried and tested expertise.

“Small to mid-sized law firms are finding it increasingly difficult to remain fully compliant with the business continuity elements of the SRA’s code of conduct. This provides another opportunity for us to offer over 100,000 firms a layer of reassurance, while also supporting them to safeguard clients, and potentially generate more revenue.

“We have also seen a significant rise in the number of financial services firms looking to ensure they’re compliant with their customer contact programme strategies. And, with financial service based services contributing over £65 billion to our economy, it’s vital they get this right.”

CALLCARE is looking therefore for employees to assist with the delivery of answering services across varying functions. The company has noticed a shift in the demographic interested in contact centre careers, due in part to those losing jobs as a result of economic uncertainty and is keen to hear from those searching for more viable and secure roles.

David added: “As businesses’ needs have become more complex, call centres have had to evolve and are no longer simply just for cold calling or message taking. The industry has matured and, as such, so have our recruitment needs. We work within a framework as opposed to following scripts, so we need bright and intuitive staff who are able to take on challenging calls, fact find and act as an extension of our clients’ teams.”