SARAH Sargent is the new head at the Dumers Lane base of Bury’s biggest private employer, O2 Customer Service Centre.

She has a strong background in customer service in banking and financial services. Hailing from Northumbria, she joined the Bank of Scotland in Berwick on Tweed straight from school. After three years, she decided to take up higher education and completed a degree in business studies in Leeds.

Sarah then joined GE Capital in Leeds as a team leader and had a variety of roles in customer service. While there, she helped set up a call centre in India which meant living in Delhi for six months, a cultural experience she greatly enjoyed.

She went on to join Axa Sunlife in Bristol, becoming head of call centre and customer service. It was there that she met her husband, David. The couple have a three year-old daughter.

In 2006 she joined O2 as head of its Glasgow site, covering for maternity leave. Remaining with the company, she headed up the retention team at its Preston Brook centre, Runcorn, before her appointment to the Bury centre. The site won Call Centre of the Year for 2007 in national awards and scored more success in the recent Call North West awards — a reputation on which she wants to build.

Sarah said: “I am proud to be head of such a successful centre and I want it to go from strength to strength. O2 has strong links with the community in Bury and I want to build on those too. It is recognised as a great place to work with great people and I aim to continue to support and develop our staff to the best of their potential.

“We are one of the top ten best loved brands in the UK. We have to work hard to ensure that perception is reinforced in everything we do, every time a customer makes contact.”