In Focus Technology


Building on the best international practices


In terms of technology, having a global view can allow you to understand the best new developments and take advantage, for the benefit of customers


Debbie Nolan Vice president collections, UK Arvato Financial Solutions debbie.nolan@arvato.com


Technology can do many things for the modern collector: it can make us more efficient and help with our compliance work, but one question that we are now asking ourselves is: ‘Can technology help to make collections more human?’


More human At first, this question might sound rather counter-intuitive, but think about it a little while. I recall, back when modern technology


was initially being talked about being used in collections, there were genuine concerns that the most vulnerable customers might be excluded by a lack of knowledge or access. If reality, the reverse has often been true: we have found that we can help customers even better when we deal with them over SMS, for example, or WhatsApp. Such new communication channels can


simply make the start of our relationship better for some customers. And this can be seen in how we have developed the technology we use. For example, here in the UK we initially


used SMS to send a PDF which the customer was able to click to choose to either pay or to talk to an agent, but we have now developed that to include a third, ‘triage’, option, asking them some basic questions around if they cannot pay right now, what the reasons for this might be. This can add a depth of genuine human


interaction when we eventually do get to speak to them as we actually understand them much better before the call. Just as importantly, they have been able to give us what might be somewhat


November 2019


embarrassing information, in a non-personal way via the technology. Similarly, if we put ourselves in the


position of a parent trying to arrange to get their kids to school, why would they want to need to talk to an agent to go through a lengthy I&E conversation? Much more so because we might well be asking for important financial information that they just do not have to hand – how many of us


At Arvato Financial Solutions we strive to be the backbone for our clients’ growth – locally and internationally. Consequently we have regional offices all around the world and it is interesting to see how they are each using technology to tackle local challenges


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would be able to accurately tell an agent what we pay on electricity or Council Tax each month, say when we are looking after an elderly relative? Again, the technology can allow us to


collect this information online at a time when the customer is best able to give it. It is all about making life that little bit


easier for the customer, and if we can do that, then we will always get the best results for them, and consequently, for our clients


International reach With all such developments, it is informative to see what works well elsewhere and what can be adapted to benefit customers here in the UK. At Arvato Financial Solutions we strive


to be the backbone for our clients’ growth – locally and internationally. Consequently we have regional offices all


around the world and it is interesting to see how they are each using technology to tackle local challenges. For example, in Brazil they have take a


fully omnichannel approach, with a focus on natural language processing, so that the technology can best deal with the average every-day language people actually speak. Likewise, in many countries, we have


regional hubs dealing with customers speaking German, Italian, and French, so the technology can help to translate. It is important to us to bring together the


successes achieved around the world to improve our focus on the customer still further. It is the truly human thing to do! CCR


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