Credit Management Jan:Feb 2019

OPINION
AUTHOR – SEAN FEAST FCICM
Martin Roseweir
Paul Jarman
Eddie Nott
There is no perfect solution, and this can
only be addressed by significant continued
vigilance at all levels, through investment
in very robust data security measures and
employing knowledgeable people, together
with extensive insurance for that unthinkable
eventuality of having a major data breach.
Hopefully as an industry we can continue
to stay one step ahead of the hackers and the
phishers.
Martin Roseweir, Managing Director
of AIC UK
I believe that the single biggest issue that we
will experience in 2019 is how to reduce the
overall cost to serve and protect contribution
margins. With costs increasing year on year,
the challenge for agencies is to find ways to
sustain and improve performance without
pouring money into the traditional letter/
telephone ‘old factory thinking’ methods of
collecting.
This year will see increases in postage and
a further increase in the National Living Wage
and pension contributions. Passing on these
costs can meet with resistance from clients,
who are also trying to reduce their own costs.
This puts the onus on our business to find
more innovative, efficient and cost-effective
ways to deliver the expected results.
How do we address this? Enhancing
our digital capability by adding new ways
to interact with customers will be key.
Introducing and promoting web chat
capability, digital letters and the ability to
request call backs at specific times to be
more efficient with dialling strategies and
also enhancing the self-serve options for
customers.
The technology is there today to deliver
on this, and 2019 will be a collaborative year
with our clients to bring these enhancements
into the mainstream and develop strategies
that meet the performance expectations, with
always keeping the customer at the heart of
everything that we do. I believe customers
want the conversations to be easier, quicker
and less obtrusive and are open to interacting
through the many new digital and automated
solutions available. We need to deliver this in
2019.
Paul Jarman, Interim Head of UK
Operations of Hoist Finance
Outside of the expected economic challenges
that 2019 will undoubtedly bring, the way
in which we need to engage with customers
will be paramount for success. Customers
no longer expect to have to adapt their
own behaviours to our business ‘habits’ – it
now has to be the other way around, with
collections and other financial services
industries needing to work to ensure every
customer enjoys a preferred way in which to
engage. The speed with which these ‘channels’
are developing and changing creates a
number of challenges including: the cost of
adoption – implementing additional channels
can be costly. Different technologies may be
needed and delivery methods into centres
need to be integrated; the rate of return –
while many of these new contact channels
are thought of as an eventual efficiency gain,
to actually get to a point where they deliver
a saving to your business can take quite
some time and real focus. It doesn’t happen
overnight; ease of integration – training your
teams and ensuring your organisation is
designed to deal with your customers in these
different ways also takes careful planning
and a real cultural shift, and this is never easy
in any business.
This year is going to be a really interesting
year in all customer service industries as
we see more and more inventive ways to do
business – not least in collections, which is
already starting to join and in some ways
even lead the technological advance.
Eddie Nott, UK Managing Director of
Intrum
The disparate treatment of ‘non-regulated’
debts is a huge challenge for the collections
industry and one that needs to be tackled
further in 2019. We believe change is coming,
with pressure on central government and
local authorities to improve their methods
and treatment of customers.
At Intrum we don’t treat debts that
fall outside Financial Conduct Authority
regulation any differently from those that
do. The shift towards better treatment
of customers and a positive customer
experience has been taking place in the UK
collections industry for some time. This is the
next frontier in that change – utility, telecoms
and public sector debt collection should meet
the same high standards as those demanded
in financial services. Ultimately, it’s about
forging a good relationship and creating
sustainable payment plans, not taking money
at any cost.
We are also helping drive this change
through our joint venture business H&F
Ethical Collections, which is already
revolutionising the way councils collect,
including a pledge by Hammersmith &
Fulham to end the use of bailiffs for council
tax arrears. Beyond this, we see technology
as an ongoing challenge for the sector – for
example deploying automation and AI in
ways that benefit customers and enhance
their experience rather than damage it.
In 2018 we launched our chatbot and it
has handled close to 4,000 messages in the
last six months. We’re now offering our
clients the chance to have their own versions
and in the coming year will be upgrading it
to provide bespoke customer information
to individuals. 2019 will bring technological
innovation to our business in this and other
areas.
The Recognised Standard / www.cicm.com / January / February 2019 / PAGE 16