Taking customer satisfaction to the next level

“We have approximately 250,000 interactions with customers every day and that’s a huge opportunity for us to seek feedback and improve our service,” says Anel Mujkanovic, Intrum’s Global Front Office Head of People Development and Quality Performance. So far 18 countries have rolled out the surveys, with more due to go live before the end of the year.

While individual countries have previously been running customer surveys of their own, the initiative has unified this process, ensuring the different markets can learn from one another and share best practice to make services better for customers.

We are working to find solutions for our clients’ customers. The ambition is to help each individual to get back in financial control as soon as possible. And to do that we really need to treat people in a professional and ethical way, and build trust by focusing on each individual’s financial situation and finding a sustainable solution.

“Our agents are trained to achieve this but we need to know how the customer perceives those efforts – their experience and feedback is of huge importance for us in order to know where we can improve.”

Real-time feedback

When a customer calls in they are given the option to participate in the survey. After the call, they receive an SMS with four questions, rating Intrum from 1 to 5. They can also add free text feedback about their experience.

The global average score is 4.2 for this year on a scale 1-5, though in last month this has risen to 4.3. So far, 720,000 surveys have gone out across Europe, with the figure set to reach one million before the end of 2022.

Despite geographical, regulatory and cultural differences, the high satisfaction scores and perception of Intrum as a value-driven company are consistent across Europe. “Scores are quite stable but we can also see that little by little we are improving those scores by working with the feedback we are getting,” says Anel.

This data also means Intrum can reach out to more people to reassure them about the reception they will receive.

That’s the biggest hurdle for our customers - making that first call. When they do, most of them are pleasantly surprised because they are met with employees that are not just competent, engaged and experienced, but are also empathetic and driven by our ethical values. That’s not the typical picture many people have of a debt collection company.

Taking action based on evidence

The call centres receive the survey results in the real time. The feedback is used on a daily, weekly and monthly basis to both boost the agents with positive feedback as well as working with the constructive feedback to improve the service that we provide.

As well as local action, a global team responsible for quality across the business monitors the scores and the feedback and is using the results to boost individuals, teams and countries as well channel improvements. Anel highlights one example where extra soft skills training was delivered to a country team with a below average score, resulting in an immediate improvement in satisfaction levels.

We are making sure the whole company rises as one – so clients receive the same excellent service across all markets. The ‘ONE Intrum’ approach is making this much more aligned and harmonised and we can really see the benefits of that.

Future plans

There are plans to enhance the survey process further, with some countries adding outbound call surveys by the end of the year. In future, the system will also flag certain types of feedback and words automatically – so teams can quickly correct the situation if a customer has not had a positive experience.

While the score is already high, the Global Front Office team is keen to drive further improvement. “We’re looking for continuous improvement in the scores. We know quality drives performance. The surveys mean we aren’t just telling our clients and customers how important quality is to us – we can show them.”

There are also plans to benchmark the results against performance in the wider debt collection industry.

Economic crisis and vulnerability

As the economic crisis hits, the surveys are another tool with which Intrum can monitor customer wellbeing and overall trends.

“We follow the economic situation closely together with our clients to ensure that we engage with their customers in the best possible way. Vulnerability requirements differ from country to country but regardless of that it is important for all our representatives to understand vulnerability and know the questions to ask around it,” says Anel.

When it comes to quality we aren’t just paying lip-service. It’s about treating people with respect.

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