In Focus Consumer Credit
Making recoveries work for creditors and customers
Last month, CCR and Marston (Holdings) brought together a group of professionals to consider how new communications realities, technology, and recoveries practices are evolving. They were: Joanna Carnell, group credit manager, Trust Ford; Helen Felstead, credit control manager, Trust Ford; Richard Hogarth-Asso, consultant, Close Brothers Motor Finance; Alan Smith, head of operations, Evolution Funding (AS); Simon Bayley, director, Moneybarn (SB); Dan Cholewinski, senior manager, MotoNovo Finance (DC); Chris Nightingale, operations manager, Burlington; Stewart Whyte, head of compliance, CarMoney (SW); Jinmi Macaulay, senior policy advisor, BVRLA (JM); Amanda Brandon, operations manager, BVRLA; Adam Dunn, head of repossessions, Loans 2 Go (AD); Chanelle Fox, recoveries manager, Loans 2 Go; Karan Burman, director, Shawbrook Bank; David Lynch, client services director – civil and business, Marston (Holdings) (DL); and Anne Atherton, director of special servicing, Blue Motor Finance (AA)
careful you have lost the engagement with customer, and you will end up needing to get the customer engagement back again. We do find that by engaging face to face
earlier, particularly after the goods become protected, if we can actually get someone to go out and talk to the customer, explain to them the reality of the situation and their options – which sometimes are not very many – then that helps. But we do also find that using automated contact methods can have a down-side in that, at that stage, some of the customers have thrown their hands in the air and said ‘I do not care, just take the car, I just do not want to think about it anymore’. But we have a duty to treat the customers
fairly in that we need to explain to the customers that this is not the end of it, we can still come to some arrangement, we can help them to sort it out, and we do want to help. But I think that there is an old- fashioned attitude that, once the customer has lost hope they can put themselves past the point of redemption sometimes.
The reliance on electronic means of communication where a relationship has not been properly established can exacerbate this situation
The reliance on electronic means of communication where a relationship has not been properly established can exacerbate this situation.
DC: It is interesting hearing people talking about the need to engage with customers more, and to do this it is important for businesses to understand how customers want to engage with them. Today, that is about putting information in the customer’s hands in a way that suits them. And more often than not, this means offering information
in a digital format. We look to adapt our offering in this way at every step of the journey as it is something we see growing at pace. We have introduced self-serve technology at the front-end, giving customers more control over their personal financial circumstances and choosing the financial product that is right for them. And now, our new self-serve facility offers the same benefits from a collections perspective. In essence, it is about offering the customer a range of options, and then adapting to their needs. All of this is a very nice fit from a regulatory perspective, but ultimately – and most importantly – benefits the customer at every stage.
AS:We have seen some issues where the car broker has supplied vehicles – new vehicles in particular – to customers where, effectively, the broker has no obligations post-contract. We use the term ‘broker-to- broker transaction’ where we would be involved as the finance broker and it gets very distorted for the
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Left-right: Karan Burman; Chanelle Fox; Chris Nightingale; Dan Cholewinski June 2019
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