Scotiabank will be pumping CDN$4.7 million (J$362 million) into an expanded customer centre operations in Kingston that will handle queries from Jamaican and Trinidadian banking clients.

The contact centre will operate from 31-33 Trafalgar Road in New Kingston, next door the Super Plus property that the grocery chain shuttered this year for lack of business.

Some 270 agents will be employed at the centre to field calls, though Scotiabank says ramping up to those numbers would take three to five years.

The company was reluctant Tuesday to speak to the project, including the financial arrangements, if any, with sister operation in Trinidad on the operation of the centre.

Tour suspension

The bank also postponed a tour of the facility that was scheduled for June 15.

"The new expansion will bring us in into certifiable world-class standards," said a flier on the new centre.

This was reiterated by Simone Hull, communication specialist at Scotiabank Jamaica, but she would be drawn no further on the project, saying the bank would speak more on the project closer to the new opening date.

In three years, the Kingston centre expects to be fielding even more calls from other Caribbean countries. Under the expanded facility, one will initially see all calls to the Trinidadian branch being answered in Jamaica, a service to be extended to other Caribbean islands over the next three years as well.

'Virtual' linkage

A flier on the centre said it offers a 'virtual' linkage with Trinidad and targets 80 per cent of agent-assisted calls being answered in 20 seconds, and solving each customer query or problem in two-three minutes.

The project is said to be led by Maya Walrond, Scotiabank jamaica's senior vice-president of customer experience, technology innovation and projects.

Walrond, who joined Scotiabank in 2007, leads the customer experience team and is charged with encouraging and sustaining a customer-centric culture across the Scotia Group.

sabrina.gordon@gleanerjm.com