The Analysis News & Opinions
‘Collectors must maintain flow of customer conversations’
Collectors must seek to maintain a ‘flow’ to conversations, even as they look to more automated routes, according to a leading industry professional. Speaking at a virtual round-table debate
run by CCRMagazine, in association with Webio, Mark Oppermann, head of sales and marketing at Webio, said: “We have seen a lot of this in our own business, in terms of getting the balance right between automation and when to bring in the agent. The ability to blend automation and human interactions without affecting the customer experience, is really key. “It cannot be a situation where you are
saying ‘right, now we have to end this part and start something else’, it just has to flow. “From our point of view, we are seeing a
lot of companies having gone straight down the self-service route, but then, when you take it to the next level, and it is conversational automation over the different messaging channels, there is a little more complexity. “Sometimes people get overawed by
information, but they do not have to be. Start with one small building block and do not try to do everything in one go. “Adding newer elements and building
upon that foundation over time, that is when we have seen the most success. The key is to start small and build up levels of complexity, rather than jumping straight into the deep end. That is the winning formula.” Brian MacFarlane, business development
manager at Capita, added: “Technology and innovation has been key over the past year. We are finding that different parts suit different businesses. We have products like real-time speech analytics, conversational AI, and self- service, but not all of them suit all parties. “Given the sheer size of our business
communication can be difficult but we have learnt to take a step back and engage with each other and these innovations have assisted us in doing that. For example, to learn from other parts of the business, away from the collections sector. “Because of the nature of our role in collections, where we interact with so many
8 (l-r): Mark Oppermann; Brian MacFarlane, and Delia Jones
parts of the wider business, it was only sensible that we should engage with them all to ask how they do things smartly and efficiently. “Collections can be an insular business,
but sometimes, we need to look further afield from ourselves, and take learning’s from elsewhere, then that has certainly worked for us.”
Meanwhile, Delia Jones, head of projects
and operations at Webio, said: “I am getting regular feedback from clients saying ‘we
are now speaking to the other part of the business more than we ever had’. “The world has become a much smaller
place now that it is virtual; there is nothing stopping you because, whereas previously it would have been on a flight somewhere, now you are getting that experience of all being in the same place and all being able to be on a quick call, and it is really expediting the progress. It is one of the positives that has come out of this period.”
Director banned for fake invoicing
A sign and displays business owner has been disqualified for 10 years after submitting false invoices to claim more than £185,000 from lenders. In April 2016, Pure Point experienced
difficulties collecting payments from its clients and began to use a factoring compa- ny to secure finance. In August 2018, Pure Point’s owner,
Russell Murch, forwarded two emails to the factoring company advising them to collect £185,000 from one of Pure Point’s clients. A factoring company paid £185,000 in
advance to Pure Point but when they attempted to claim funds from the client, the debts were disputed and the factoring
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company was unable to collect money owed to them. Investigators found the emails claiming
Pure Point was owed £185,000 had been falsified. Mr Murch claimed to have received emails from the customer which he forwarded to the factoring firm to receive the funds, but the email addresses used did not exist. Mr Murch told the Insolvency Service
that he informed the factoring company that due to ill health, the company’s sales manager had taken control of the company and that this employee was inflating sales. The factoring company, however, had no record of either discussion and at liquidation, Pure Point owed them more than £257,000.
February 2021
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