In Focus Commercial Credit


Delivering human experience to vulnerable customers


Now it is more important than ever to deliver on customer needs, so how can credit and collections businesses go about this?


Martin Canwell Solutions consultant, Aptean Respond martin.canwell @aptean.com


It is no secret that 2020 has shifted the way businesses respond to customer needs. In fact, customer vulnerability is at an all-time high, with aspects of “newly vulnerable” customers in almost every one of us. Whilst a Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) survey in 2017 found 50% of UK adults display indicators of vulnerability, we are seeing that statistic increase considerably this year – providing businesses with a new challenge: how to deliver the human experience to vulnerable customers and staff. In this article, we are going to consider


the human experience, and how businesses need to take customer experience to the next level. Organisations need to understand how


their customer base is vulnerable, and what they must to do to ensure their teams are adjusting to customer needs. Using the term ‘human experience’, makes


businesses question whether their systems and processes are aligned to deal with the changing state of their customer’s economic, mental, and emotional statuses. This plays a key part in case management and how employees are able to meet the changing needs of customers. So, how do you determine if a customer


is vulnerable? The FCA says: “A vulnerable customer is someone who, due to their personal circumstances, is especially susceptible to detriment, particularly when a firm is not acting with appropriate levels of care.” This could be anyone undergoing financial or emotional challenges. The question for case handlers is how do you take into account your customers’ level


August 2020


Using the term ‘human experience’, makes businesses question whether their systems and processes are aligned to deal with the changing state of their customer’s economic, mental, and emotional statuses


of vulnerability and work that into your customer experience. This could be as simple as asking customers: how is this situation affecting you? The key to human experience at this time


is bringing customer vulnerability into all of your business processes. Strategies for this can include; taking notes prior to customer interactions in order to better serve their needs, creating easier ways for customers to get in contact with your organisation, and staying steps ahead of where regulatory changes are heading.


www.CCRMagazine.com Ask yourselves whether there is any


possible way to make your customers’ lives that bit easier during these unprecedented times. This could be anything from adding a chat function on your website, to training staff to better handle challenging topics and conversations. It is also important to view your employees


as possibly vulnerable as well. As staff are furloughed and moved around, a company must provide the appropriate training and support in order to provide the best possible experience and overall customer, and employee, satisfaction. This means helping employees understand what is important to customers during this time, and how best to manage those conversations, whilst also having a process in place that provides employees with a way to handle customer vulnerabilities. Aptean Respond, our case and complaint


management solution, compliments your business processes. Throughout the changes this year, our customers have optimised the solution by adding critical fields to monitor and highlight key vulnerability factors, which come up throughout the case journey. In the last few months we have also seen


a reduction in the Perception Gap – the way in which a business perceives how well they are serving their customers versus how well the customers perceive their experience. This is helped by the flexibility of our system and the way it enables staff to take customer experience to the next level – the human experience. To find out more, please please visit www.aptean.com/respond. CCR


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