OREANDA-NEWS. January 24, 2012. The DNB bank’s 24/7 Contact Centre ended the year 2011 by setting a record – more calls during the month of December than ever before during its history of five years.  The monthly average has been around 25,000 calls to the Contact Centre, but in December that number nearly doubled to 49,000 calls, reported the press-centre of DNB bank.

The major change in calling statistics during the last month of the year can be attributed to the tense situation in Latvia’s banking sector.  Many of those who rang the line were clients of Latvijas Krajbanka, and they were interested in the DNB bank’s basic services – accounts, payment cards, and Internet banking services.

“Even without reading the news, we are aware of important events in the country and the way in which these have affected the lives of our existing and potential clients,” says the director of the DNB Contact Centre, Edite Langmane.  “In a sense we are something of a barometer which senses and reacts to the slightest changes in pressure.”

During months when nothing extraordinary such as the events of December 2011 occurs, 85% of those who ring the Contact Centre are DNB clients.  People are most often interested in the bank’s services, the Internet banking system, the use of payment cards, and the opportunity to establish contacts with specific specialists at the bank.

Contract Centre employees say that the largest number of calls is received between 11:00 AM and 5:00 PM, when individuals and representatives of companies make the calls.  The second wave of calls begins after 7:00 PM, when individual clients have come home and want to pay bills, use the Interet bank, or pose questions to the bank.  Evening calls are also made by people from smaller companies, as well as individual entrepreneurs who sometimes work at home.

“Day-by-day changes in the number of calls depend on various everyday factors such as dates when wages are paid and people thus pay their bills, as well as holidays and vacations,” says Langmane.  “At the same time, however, we receive more calls on Mondays, Thursdays and Fridays if nothing extraordinary has happened.”

Clients have also been making increasing numbers of calls to the Contact Centre at night.  At one time, most of the calls related problems with payment cards or the Internet banking system, but today clients more often need consultations on other issues such as shopping on the Internet.  Calls late in the evening or at night are also received from clients who live in other countries and are, therefore, in different time zones.

The DNB bank Contact Centre has been available on a 24/7 basis since April 1, 2007.  The number is 1880.