COLUMBIA -- The phones ring and the voices of South Carolina Bank and Trust Customer Care Center employees are ready to serve.

The center is abuzz this Wednesday afternoon with activity as a digital display system keeps track of phone calls coming into the 5,000-square-foot newly renovated call center.

“We do what most of the customer service representatives in the branches do,” says Cindy Myers, comanager of the Customer Care Center located on the third floor of the SCBT Orangeburg John C. Calhoun headquarters. “We will assist them about account information, stop payments and provide maintenance to their account. We do as much maintenance as possible ... to try to keep the branches as free as possible.”

The SCBT Customer Care Center (Main Banking Center), which was formerly located in a building on Russell Street, was consolidated and brought under the roof of the bank’s headquarters about three months ago to help enhance employee convenience, and to meet growing customer demands and increased call volume.

The Russell Street facility is empty and up for lease.

The customer call center, as well as the bank’s online banking center, occupies the former audit and funds management area of the bank. These departments were relocated within the bank.

Currently, the call center receives about 52,000 calls a month, up from the approximately 30,000 calls a month received upon its opening in 2000.

The call center employs about 16, up from the eight it originally employed.

Leslie Gilyard, comanager of the online banking call center, said the online banking department aims to troubleshoot for customers.

“We set their passwords,” Gilyard said, noting the department averages about 100 calls a day. “It (online banking) is growing.”

The relocation of the call center comes on the heels of the bank’s opening of a 1,500-square-foot teller training center at its Columbia Gervais Street headquarters Oct. 16.

The call center expansion required the relocation of the teller training site.

The Columbia teller training center aims to provide a fully functioning branch for employees to learn simulated on-the-job-training.

“At SCBT, we believe in the success of our people and we believe in providing excellent customer service,” said John Pollok, CFO and COO. “This facility will allow tellers to learn how to do everything the right way before they deal with an actual customer.”

Pollok said the relocation of the training department will provide a more central location for statewide training.

The renovations include a meeting room that can accommodate up to 120 people and an information technology training room that provides hands-on training for up to 15 students at a time.

Students will go through one week of classroom training, followed by one week of “on the job” training in the center.

SCBT conducts approximately 1,248 hours of teller training per year.

The teller training center has a fully functioning security system and includes one of every type of lock that an employee would have to operate. It also includes a fully functioning pneumatic tube system, handicapped window, and night-deposit drop.

n T&D Staff Writer Gene Zaleski can be reached by e-mail at gzaleski@timesanddemocrat.com or by phone at 803-533-5551. Discuss this and other stories online at TheTandD.com

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