Putting people at the heart of ethical debt prevention & recovery

Fallout from the pandemic and the current cost of living crisis means that more people than ever are struggling financially. According to The Money Charity the average total debt per UK household in March of this year stood at £64,107, which equates to people owing more than £1,781.7 billion and is an increase of £63.4 billion from the same time last year. 

According to Chris Gorman, Head of Professional Services at Esendex, “In the face of this challenge, we are seeing many of our customers, including local government, debt collectors, debt purchasers and housing associations, keen to identify a debt recovery solution that is ethical, effective and easy to implement.

“Research supports this move away from the traditional scenario of unwelcome letters landing on the doorstep – 69% of people who struggle financially don’t want to talk to someone about their problems, so by giving customers the option of avoiding an unpleasant telephone call, while controlling their debt and repayment plan, Mobile Collect from Esendex is supporting a frictionless self-serve – and ethically-grounded customer experience.

“Our Mobile Collect solution, which has already been recognised by industry awards covers all these bases, while giving people who owe money, a degree of choice and control over their own finances which helps them to get back on track with a regular payment plan.

The Professional Services team also works with individual customers to ensure that their specific business challenges and objectives can be built into the solution:

“The portal allows users to log-in, verify their identity, and manage their account through their mobile phone. We also developed open banking functionality and a layer of AI within the platform for one of our debt management companies, so that users had a faster, safer and more accurate way of populating Income & Expenditure forms. Detailed reporting and reminders have also rounded off a best-in-class UI and UX experience.

“From a company perspective the self-serve model has delivered clear benefits, not least of which has been to allow support staff to devote more time to resolving complex situations, and support some of the most vulnerable users who need additional intervention.

“Working towards better outcomes, especially for those who are vulnerable and require much more support, is a far better way of dealing with collections — both from a debtor’s point of view and also because it makes sound business and financial sense.

“Mobile Collect is a powerful, tried and tested platform that can be deployed with minimal fuss straight out of the box or which can, in consultation with our team, be tailored to suit more exacting operational and governance requirements.”

“The metrics really speak for themselves; Esendex has facilitated the collection of over £360m to date across its product set, with an 18% click through rate, an average payment rate of 42% and an average ROI return of 1,480%.”