Wescot | Tracing Services Available

Wescot is the UK’s largest debt recovery companies, with three office locations in Glasgow, Hull and Saltcoats, the company employs 650 people to help process the 5 million accounts they receive every year. Wescot’s primary service is to help clients who face unpaid loans get their money back from their customers. By adhering to the new, stringent regulations in place from the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), Wescot have ensured that in the many years they have been operating they not only deliver a high service to their clients, but go a long way to protecting the needs of the account owners that they correspond with.

Recently, Wescot have been involved in a philanthropic endeavour, when they were approached by Swift Advances, a loans company. Swift specialise in delivering niche loans to people who would otherwise struggle to receive credit from high street banks wescotand other creditors. In this case, however, they required Wescot not to recover debt for them, but to help trace people who were eligible for remediation payments from the Swift Group. By using the same techniques that the debt recovery company uses to trace customers that have yet to pay up, Wescot were able to trace 80% of the people that Swift owed money to.

The exercise was a success, and a spokesperson from Swift Group said that they had 2000 customers who all needed tracing and the ‘process was extremely effective and involved minimum effort on our part.

Wescot were able to trace so many people by using the original contact details that they had left with Swift Advances while taking out a loan. They are then able to use those details to trace anyone who had left the original premises, or if all contact had been lost and even if residency at a given address is yet to be verified. While in this instance, the techniques employed by Wescot enabled many people to receive remediation payments, they are keen to point out that they are equally applied to recovering loan payments for their clients.

Even in a constantly shifting environment in the UK where people often change addresses throughout their life, it is testament to Wescot’s ability in tracing customers that they could find 80% of Swift Advances’ clients in a short space of time, delivering satisfaction to the client.

Wescot | Importance of Learning and Development

For any business in the modern world, having a strong learning and development programme is key to maintaining the success of the company. People change jobs far more frequently than they used to, so getting a new influx of employees on the same level as the rest of the team is important, not to mention enhancing the skills of the staff already employed there. Wescot is the country’s biggest debt recovery company and employs over 650 people, one of the reasons they are able to handle all 5 million of the accounts that they process every year is through the dedicated training that the staff receive at the company.

Wescot is a customer focused debt recovery agency, at the highest priority is maintaining a positive working relationship with all of their clients. One of the ways that Wescot can do this is through their extensive learning and development scheme that regularly twescoteaches the staff that the customer is necessary. So for every person who works at Wescot, they will deliver the same high standard of service to every one of the debt recovery company’s clients.

There are many ways in which Wescot ensure the success of their learning and development. Linking all training to the performance of their employees is an effective way to show that by learning x, they are actively improving their ability to perform y. The reviews that Wescot perform on their employees is an integral part of this process as the learning and development team can monitor how effective the training has been. Another objective of Wescot is to ensure that their training is fun and engaging. For any employee to feel respected and valued by their company, they have to be engaged through learning activities. This then translates to a greater performance from members of the team that go through this training and therefore a greater customer service from Wescot as a whole.

The learning and development team comprises of some of the leaders in their field. For instance, Mike Rustill who leads the team, has joined Wescot from O2 where he was head of training there and he has won several awards for the success of his training programmes. Clients can rest assured that their needs will be met as a result of the high training standards set by Mike Rustill and the team.

Wescot | Customer Driven Learning and Development

Wescot is a debt recovery company that is based in Hull, Glasgow and Saltcoats. Employing 650 people, Wescot are able to process the 5 million accounts per year that they receive, to the high standard for each of the company’s clients. Customer satisfaction is a philosophy that runs right through Wescot and is most pronounced in the learning and development Wescotprogrammes that the team put together. With the changes that the debt recovery industry is currently undergoing, there is even greater emphasis on a successful training department to better cope with these new changes.

The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has recently taken over as the regulator of debt recovery companies. This means that the team at Wescot behind learning and development have worked hard to make sure that the training that their staff receive adheres to the guidelines set out by the FCA. Complaint management is an area that has received greater scrutiny amongst other areas. For Wescot, it is important that they are able to maintain close relations with their clients and the employees at the company are trained to explain to clients exactly what they can expect under the new rules from the FCA.

In order for employees at Wescot to feel motivated to convey the company’s philosophy of customer satisfaction, they have to feel engaged with the company. One of the most effective ways of increasing their engagement level is to enhance their training and skills. Wescot’s learning and development department have put together a training programme, that through reviewing all employees they can work on the areas that need improving. What this means for Wescot’s clients is that every employee should be dedicated to satisfying their needs and everyone delivers the same high standard of service.

Ultimately, employees at Wescot have to be aware of what the company’s aims and objectives are. The learning and development team have a comprehensive induction process that relays this information to all new employees but they also extend this throughout the whole company. Under the leadership of Mike Rustill, a highly trained and educated L&D leader that joined Wescot from O2, the L&D department ensure the success of the company through their training and review processes.

 

Wescot | Updating the Debt Recovery Process

The current economic climate, despite showing some signs of recovery, is still putting a lot of pressure on people financially. This has a knock-on effect to companies involved in the credit process and as such the six years since the credit crunch has forced many creditors to update their operating procedures in light of the changing industry. Couple this with the changes implemented by the new regulation body, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) which has in fact put greater pressures on credit manawescotgement companies then businesses are in a state of flux. Wescot, the country’s largest debt recovery company has however, adapted some of its processes in order to remain at the head of the game.

The average level of disposable income for 2013 was £139 per week. For anyone with outstanding debts then this severely reduces the amount at which they can pay and puts pressure on debt recovery companies as the timescale on a collection is lengthened. To overcome this problem and still deliver a high standard to their clients, companies must be forthcoming with what targets they can reasonably achieve.

When the FCA began regulating the debt recovery market, one of the new rules they introduced meant more efficient complaint handling from debt recovery companies. In order to handle the number of complaints from account owners, Wescot turned to Equinti, a software company that creates programmes to drastically change the efficiency of background processes. Their Perito software has enabled the debt recovery company to organise their complaints better and ensure that the most pressing matters are dealt with first.

In the debt recovery industry, there is still a need for traditional snail mail as a physical letter is far more persuasive than an email that gets ignored in the inbox. During the recession it is important that all businesses operate as efficiently as possible. To this end, Adare is a company that effectively handles large volumes of mail, both by delivering the letters themselves, to speeding up the process of creating the correspondence in the first place. SmartEdit is a programme from Adare that Wescot have utilised to rapidly speed up the time it takes to write letters out, as many are fundamentally the same with some minor changes.

By updating their processes, debt recovery companies can remain on top whilst the industry changes.

Wescot | Learning and Development Culture

Wescot, the UK’s biggest debt recovery company, is keen to promote the strong learning and training culture that exists within the company. Everybody from the managers, to the learning and development team themselves, right to the freshest employees are encouraged to further improve their abilities and skills. This means that for a customer driven company like Wescot, everybody that works for the company is able to deliver the high standard of customer service that is expected from them.wescot

The learning and development programmes developed by Mike Rustill and his team are engineered to motivate the employees at Wescot to give the best customer service that they can. Client satisfaction is of the utmost importance at Wescot and it is seen to it that everybody that works at the company shares that philosophy. The learning and development team hold regular reviews of every member of staff, so that their strengths and weaknesses can be highlighted. In the case of further training being required, the reviews will go a long way to informing the learning and development team which areas an employee might need extra education. With an extensive training process, clients of Wescot can expect that no matter who they talk to, they will be left encouraged by the friendly and knowledgeable staff who work at the company.

To exhibit just how much learning and development is part of Wescot, the company is keen to embrace the legislation that came into force on the 6th April 2010. Employees were given the right to take time off work for study or training as of that date, and Wescot put a lot of effort into making sure their employees are aware of this. Whether the training is done through Wescot, or the individual has secured further training outside of the business, then the learning and development team are happy to oblige them with the time off. The only proviso of taking this time off is that employees have to prove that by undertaking this training they will actively improve their ability to work for Wescot.

The learning and development culture is paramount for the success of Wescot, managers are fully aware of the progress of employees and acknowledge the fact that through development, the business can continue to succeed.

Wescot | CCR’s Latest Big Name Sponsor

CCR, or Credits Collections and Risk magazine is the UK’s most read publication regarding the credit industry. Since 2008 and the dawn of the recession, credit and debt have been hotly debated subjects throughout the media. CCR has regularly reported every month on the changes made to the industry as it goes through an extended period of upheaval. The magazine presents information to not just the credit industry but to customers as well, acknowledging any queries that they might have with regards to debt and how to manage it. Each year, CCR also presents a one day conference, entitled CCR-Interactive and many large names in credit make an appearance to network and expand their client base.

With the success of the CCR-Interactive event growing each year, then it has been important for CCR to secure funding from outside sources. They recently announced a new sponsor of the event to be Wescot, the largest debt recovery company in Britain. Based in Glasgow, Hull and Saltcoats the debt management agency employs over 650 people who annually process 5 million different accounts. It is hoped by the organisers of CCR-Interactive that the company’s involvement will provide them with two things, firstly the means to host such an important event, but also the prestige of Wescot will no doubt attract even more people to attend CCR-Interactive.

At the event, attendees can expect amongst other things a brilliant opportunity to socialise and network. The CCR-Interactive attracts many different businesses and some of which would not ordinarily correspond in such a neutral and positive environment. Indwescotividuals, not affiliated with a company will enjoy being able to approach many different businesses in one go, getting a frank view of what each company could offer them.

To end the day, CCR and their sponsor will host a dinner and awards ceremony. The CCR awards are some of the highest accolades that any company in the credit industry can hope to achieve and they are attended by hundreds of people. This is the perfect place for a customer driven company like Wescot to showcase their capabilities as a sponsor and highlight the company’s strengths in general.

Wescot | Money Advice Scotland Introduces New Sponsor for their Conference

Money Advice Scotland is a charity that has been operating since 1989; they provide important advice to people struggling to repay debts and attempting to relieve the burden that borrowing money often creates. Each year, Money Advice Scotland hosts a two day conference to bring together people from all over the credit industry, not just major lenders but also individuals that need advice on financial responsibility and debt management companies. The event has continued to go from strength to strength as it provides not onlywescot a forum for those who are in debt to voice their worries and receive advice on where to go next, but it also attracts many large companies wishing to network and meet other companies within the industry. Naturally, an event such as this requires a certain level of financial support, and Money Advice Scotland sources many sponsors, including large lending companies. They have recently announced Wescot, a debt recovery company from Glasgow as one of the big new sponsors of the event.

As well as the necessary financial backing required to host such an event, Money Advice Scotland also welcomed the prestige that their big sponsors bring with them. Their newest sponsor, Wescot for example employs 650 people over three locations, Glasgow, Saltcoats and Hull and they process 5 million accounts each year. They have become one of the biggest debt recovery companies in the country and as such they are bound to attract even more people to attend the Money Advice Scotland conference in the years to come. Not only will their prestige attract other companies, start-ups and established lenders that require debt recoveries, but the attraction of having a market expert to provide advice to people suffering from debt will be a large boon to the conference.

The event itself covers two days, on the first day there are optional workshops that will focus on different but related areas of credit management. These workshops are held primarily for members of the public that Money Advice Scotland come into contact with every day as part of their operations. One of the biggest attractions of these events for corporations, however are the ample opportunities to network with other businesses in the industry that they might not otherwise come into contact with.

Wescot | Experian’s ExPin Service Receives New Client

Experian is one of the largest credit management companies in the world, they are most famous for leading the way in providing rapid results on credit history checks, ensuring that lenders know exactly who they are about to hand a loan over to. While Experian is based in Dublin, they have operational centres in Nottingham, Sao Paulo and in California and they employ a total of 17000 people. Their job is to compile all the data on purchases, income and outgoings on individuals so that when that individual next goes to apply for credit, they can quickly give the lender an assessment on whether they can afford it or not. ExPin is the name of the new system that Experian have developed to further assist third parties in lending.

ExPin’s focus is on the customers of Experian’s clientele. The system compiles data from Experian’s already considerably database and then delivers this information directly to the client. Each ExPin client is given a bespoke service that matches the customers that they might come into contact with, it constantly updates itself so wescotthat the information is always current and relevant to the transaction they are about to make. The quantitative assessment that ExPin will make for clients will take a lot of the hassle out of making a credit assessment themselves, and clients can have confidence in the accuracy of the results that the system provides.

Recently, as part of a multimillion pound deal, Experian have teamed up with Wescot, a debt recovery agency from Glasgow, to allow them to use the ExPin system. This move is set to rapidly speed up the process with which they can recover debts. There are a certain amount of pressures on debt recovery agencies to act within stricter guidelines as per the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) as well as the limited funds available to most people as a result of the global financial crisis. By utilising the ExPin system, Wescot are now able to rapidly make an assessment on just how much the customers can pay by looking at how much money they spend each month.

The speed at which ExPin can now deliver results to the clients of Experian has helped to ensure the credit management company’s success in the future as well as helping thousands of clients make credit decisions across the world.

Wescot | Debt Recovery Improved by New Letters Management

While there is a large portion of business correspondence now conducted through emails, there is still a necessity for businesses to send out large volumes of traditional post, often Wescothe only option is to send letters out. There is a company that can assist in what can be such a time consuming and expensive exercise, Adare Limited specialise in cost effective large volume mail solutions. Adare place special emphasis on transactional mail, security print and direct mail operations and adhere consistently with the laws of the Data Protection Act, ensuring both their clients and recipients of the mail are protected. With an on-site production facility, Adare are also able to offer cheaper alternatives than their peers and a much faster mail service.

In keeping with Adare’s philosophy of speeding up large volume mail processes, they have also developed a software programme called SmartEdit. This enables clients to alter many letters far quicker than a traditional word processing suite, particularly when the letter contains stock information but there are minor alterations required such as address and name of recipient. By using SmartEdit, clients can quickly process large amounts of mail without having to go through each document individually and manually change the minor details. What this translates to in terms of Adare’s clients is primarily a much faster mailing system and a reduced cost for the business.

Wescot is a debt recovery company employing 650 people, with offices in the main HQ of Glasgow, Saltcoats and Hull. They regularly process 5 million accounts each year and as is the nature of their business, emails are often ignored. Therefore, Wescot need a fast and cost effective method that will deliver as many physical letters as possible, to this end the debt recovery agency turned to Adare Limited to service their mail. They also implement Adare’s SmartEdit system, because the letters they send out are often the same, apart from a change in name and the amount that they need to pay back to the client. Without Adare’s mail management and software, Wescot would take a lot longer to process each account and ultimately, not be as profitable as they are.

Adare Limited are a customer focused company that are committed to reducing the costs of large volume mail operations and speeding up the process of delivering hundreds of letters at once.

Wescot | Efficient Complaints Process for Debt Recovery

WescotFor many large companies, it is important that they should attempt to speed up the efficiency of all the processes that enable the business to keep running. This goes for not just the primary systems that make up the initial business model, be that credit lending or selling watches, but the background processes that are necessary for any business to work, departments such as human resources have to be as efficient as possible reduce costs for the business as a whole. The Equinti group specialises in improving these systems through the use of IT programmes and software. One of the more common products that Equinti offer is called Perito and the Perito system is used extensively in automating many processes and actively reducing the costs for Equinti’s clients.

One of Equinti’s current clients is a credit management company from Glasgow. Wescot is one of the UK’s largest debt recovery companies, employing over 650 people in three locations throughout the North. Because the debt recovery industry has recently been put under increased pressure from the new regulatory body, the Financial Conduct Authority, companies have had to greatly improve their customer relations and complaint management systems. Perito is one such automated system that has been shown to reduce the ‘risk associated with manual processes’, so says a spokesperson for the debt recovery company. Wescot is now in a position whereby they can much more efficiently deal with complaints from third parties by utilising the Perito system. Each mistake that is left absent by implementing Perito is a mistake that will no longer affect the running of the business. The programme works by sorting the complaints into a database with each one ranked in severity. This means that the more imperative complaints will be dealt with quicker, in accordance with the FCA regulations.

Equinti have worked closely with large IT companies, Microsoft and IBM in order to create their automated IT systems. With the backing and support of these companies, clients of Equinti can rest assured that the most efficient and best quality programmes are in their hands, actively contributing to both a more efficient and cost effective business. For Equinti, their philosophy is the continued reduction in unnecessary costs and this can be seen through the software programmes that they develop.