Startline Motor Finance has appointed former Santander UK man John Bannerman as its new head of customer services.

The move follows the automotive finance specialist's March announcement that it planned to move its customer services department in-house and will see Bannerman assume responsibility for the operation of the new team, which already totals 12 people at the company’s Glasgow head office and is expected to grow to 16 by the end of 2019.

Bannerman, was previously head of complaints operations for retail banking, business banking, fraud and regulated advice teams at Santander UK, said: “At Startline, customer services includes all of the activity that might be needed by customers during the life of their finance agreement.

“I have experience in customer services, contact centre and complaints environments across multi-channel customer platforms and I am sure that this experience will help as we continue the process of bringing the customer services function in-house.”

Bannerman will also be overseeing the complaints team at Startline, which is being augmented with new staff in line with the business’s rapid expansion over the last year.

“The complaints team within Startline is already working well and my role will be to identify new opportunities to enhance how we deliver positive outcomes for our customers,” he said.

“I am really excited to have joined Startline just as it is going through a period of major expansion. I personally feel there is a great cultural fit with the business that is undoubtedly customer-centric in its approach and I am looking forward to building on that ethos over the coming months and years.”

Startline has doubled its office space over the last few months, with an additional 7,500 square feet taken at the company’s Skypark One headquarters.

Chief executive, Paul Burgess, said: “Since our inception, we have outsourced our customer services function.

“However, we decided at the start of 2019 that the time was right for us to assume responsibility for our portfolio internally as the business matures.

“The move is giving us greater control over the customer journey and helping us to continue to drive our service standards. It is an exciting change and also a vote of confidence in the quality of staff that we are able to recruit in and around Glasgow, with the hiring process already well underway. We’re pleased to appoint John to support this development.”