Cost of living crisis – caring for your customers
The cost of living crisis continues and adds pressure on consumers who are already struggling with financial difficulties. At Intrum, we are ideally placed to help people in debt find sustainable solutions.
While financial difficulties can seem never-ending, at Intrum we have been collecting debt for 100 years and have seen bad times come and go. Our business helps smooth difficult times for our clients and their customers. We are used to speaking to people in financial distress and helping them find a way through.
For society to function, businesses need to be paid for their goods and services, and individuals need to be free from problem debt so they can make the most of their lives and achieve their dreams and goals. We find purpose in leading the way to a sound economy, for individuals, companies and for society at large.
Caring for your customers
In practice, that means we work with people in debt to understand their financial circumstances and to enable them to repay in an affordable and sustainable way. For many people, that will take some time, but once they have set up a regular, manageable payment plan, they’re free to get on with their lives without worrying about their debts, while their creditors are assured of repayment.
During times of difficulty, our tried and tested processes remain robust. We may speak to more people in difficulty, or find that some consumers need to renegotiate their existing payment plans, but our team are adept at handling these issues.
Treating Customers Fairly
We take our responsibility as Europe’s largest credit management services company very seriously. Every day we are in touch with 250,000 people and our business runs on the foundation that we treat those customers ethically and fairly. We have developed robust principles that we believe should be the minimum standard for our industry.
These ten principles form our Treating Customers Fairly instruction – a set of guidelines that are applied across our operations.
Our clients and their customers can expect:
Vulnerability
At Intrum, we understand that vulnerability can take many forms – from physical and mental health conditions to life events such as job loss, bereavement and relationship breakdown. All individuals are different and some may prefer not to identify themselves as vulnerable or have their circumstances recorded.
Ethical debt collection practice
No matter the circumstance, our team members are trained to be aware of vulnerability and to look for signs of it when speaking to customers. Empathy is a key skill that we value highly when recruiting. It is important that our call handlers listen to customers, hear what they are saying and seek individual solutions to their problems.
We pride ourselves on taking the pain and worry out of difficult situations – our customer feedback shows that consumers wish they had called us sooner. We are constantly analysing our performance and looking for ways to enhance customer experience.
Ultimately, we are here to help our clients by caring for their customers at a difficult time. We know what we do matters and we are equipped to do this in all economic circumstances.
