1. What do the five operations performance objectives (quality, speed, dependability, flexibility and cost) mean for call-centre operations such as Lombard’s? One of the most significant trends in the financial services industry has been the growth in telephone access. Many financial services, such as banks, have developed a more focused approach to personal customers through 24-hour telephone access. The concept of telephonebased financial services is not new. It was first launched successfully in 1985 by Första Sparbanken in Sweden with a service called Första Direckt. This has become a blueprint for several similar services.

Typical of these ‘total access’ services is that described below:

‘You can call us 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. If you want to give us instructions to pay your gas bill on Christmas Day, that’s fine. If you want to tell us to transfer money at 2.00 a.m., that’s fine too. If you’re on the other side of the world in a different time zone you can still call us ... [we are] ... more than just a convenient telephone banking service. Your own Personal Account Manager will offer you a highly individual approach to both your day-to-day finances and your long-term financial planning’.