Category Archives: customer focussed values

Wescot | Importance of Training to Great Customer Service

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At Wescot, learning and development is a key aspect for the business moving forward. The landscape of the credit industry is changing, it would be short-sighted of Wescot for the company to not devote a lot of time and effort into developing the staff and preparing them for the new strategies necessary to overcome these obstacles. This is in addition to the customer service driven training that all Wescot employees receive upon arriving at the company and continue to develop throughout their time at the debt recovery agency.

Customer satisfaction is one of the main business objectives at Wescot. This goes for their clients, i.e. the companies that are still owed money, as well as the individuals that Wescot are tracking down for remuneration. To this end, there is a dedicated learning and development team at Wescot to ensure that every staff member is on the same page, no matter who a customer talks to at Wescot they will experience a great customer service and knowledgeable reception.

The industry of credit management is facing a turbulent future with the result of the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) taking over as a regulating body. Companies that operate in this sector, like Wescot have had to adopt new strategies and business models in order to comply with the more stringent rules imposed on them by the FCA. The learning and development department have been busy too, making sure that their training programmes in the future will focus on the new legislation regarding debt recovery. It is only through working together as a team at Wescot that the company will continue to maintain their lead as the UK’s largest debt recovery company.

wescotConstant training and learning is also important to motivating a workforce. The more time that Wescot dedicates to improving the skills of their employees then they will feel more engaged with the company. This translates to a better, more efficient workforce and will contribute to the success of Wescot as a whole.

Mike Rustill is Wescot’s learning and development team leader and he brings a wealth of experience in managing in house training to the company, an asset to a company with so many staff members to keep developing.

Wescot – Money Advice Scotland annual conference

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Money Advice Scotland hosted its 24th Annual Conference in Glasgow in June 2013. The long-standing event is seen as an important and informative event which is utilised by many people from varying backgrounds. The 24th Annual Conference addressed many different issues, but dedicated a lot of the event to the changes within the financial world and the regulatory process.

One of the key issues at the event concerned the changes in bankruptcy legislation, which will have a major impact on many people and businesses within Scotland itself. Also on the agenda at the conference were discussions relating to welfare provision with particular emphasis being placed on the effect that it will have on the consumer. Many of the changes that have recently been put in place were discussed at the event with many debating who will be the ones to benefit from the changes. The event gave like-minded people the opportunity to meet in one place and talk about issues concerning credit and debt.

The introduction of the Financial Conduct Authority was also addressed at the conference which was once again sponsored by Wescot, one of the largest debt collection services in the United Kingdom. The Financial Conduct Authority has been set up to deal with the conduct of large banks all the way down to small businesses and traders and it is hoped that this new authority will play an important role in the transparency of financial issues in the future.

wescotMany of the leading industry experts were on hand at the conference to offer their expert opinion and discuss relevant aspects concerning the current financial sector. The event once more played host to exceptional keynote speakers such as Margaret Curran MP, who discussed the changes to the welfare system whilst Paul Lewis of the BBC chaired the opening day’s events.

Wescot have been sponsoring the event for many years and are extremely proud to be associated with such a dedicated and comprehensive event. Wescot employ over 650 staff throughout the United Kingdom and are considered to be one of the leading debt recovery agencies in the United Kingdom. The fact that the company sponsors such a prestigious event is proof itself that Wescot are leading players within the financial sector and have a keen interest in the current issues.

Wescot | Importance of Learning and Development

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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

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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

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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

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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 | Debt Recovery Agency Implements Successful Learning and Development

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Training and continued development of employees is one of the key aspects to running a successful business, training encourages two things, first of which is that it makes employees feel more valued by their employer. Secondly, because employees feel more engaged, they are then more likely to commit greater effort to the business buoyed by the recent development. Wescot is a debt wescotrecovery agency from the UK, that have recognised the need for continued development of their staff, not least because of the extraneous pressures placed on the company to update its processes.

While Wescot have already employed a successful team within the learning and development department, to further train their employees in responsible debt recovery and customer relations, they have had to recently update their operating procedures. This has involved changing the training that Wescot staff receive to fall in line with the new laws set out by the Financial Conduct Authority.

Wescot is one of the largest debt recovery companies in the UK, 5 million individual debts are processed through the company’s 650 employees. Because of the high level of operation that Wescot currently performs at, it is important that the company not only retains a high level of training, but they ensure that the training they give to employees will allow them to work with the FCA’s permission. In a large company such as Wescot, it would be easy for employees to slip under the radar and not receive further training. Such is the high quality of the learning and development department at Wescot that this is not the case, it is important for the continued success of the company that their employees feel motivated and engaged enough to do their jobs to the required standard.

In order to cover all the bases, Wescot continually review their agents and their performances are assessed. The learning and development department will then look at the areas that the employees need to work on and develop the training programmes to suit. In addition to helping engage their employees, Wescot are transparent when it comes to what the management team expect of their colleagues when they turn up to work. The management team also take an active role in developing those who are underperforming, being an integral part in Wescot’s learning and development systems

Wescot | Learning and Development for Debt Recovery Efficiency

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One of the most important aspects to running a business is to make sure that each member of staff is trained to the highest standard, in order to conduct business with a certain level of autonomy, carrying out the company’s mission to the best of their ability. To this end, Wescot Credit Services provide their staff with many courses and training days to ensure they act as a true representative of the company. Training has also been proven to increase engagement levels between company and staff; therefore a more motivated workforce is a more efficient one.

WescotWescot Credit Services is one of the largest debt recovery companies in the UK, with offices across Scotland and England; they process over 5 million accounts each year. This high volume of work requires employers to pay close attention and conscientiously process each account with the same high standard as the last. This then is transferred to the clients of Wescot, who constantly put their customers first. A more efficient turnaround on a debt recovery project means lower costs for the client, as well as stronger relations, meaning a high chance of the client returning to Wescot in the future. Learning and development therefore is very important to the company; each employee is entitled to inductions into the company that highlight the company’s strengths and business objectives as well as regular reviews on performance and clear set targets for their continued success.

In addition to being continually reviewed, Wescot Credit Services then offer their employees training in the areas that are perhaps not as effective as in other areas. The Learning and Development team concentrate their efforts on ensuring that their employees are treated with respect when undergoing training, so as to not make them feel disassociated with the company. This again increases the likelihood of a successful debt recovery campaign from Wescot.

Wescot Credit Services also operate a transparency policy on what the management team can be expected to do for the staff. This increases staff morale and shows that there is not such a divide between the management and their delegates. The management team at Wescot take an active role in learning and development of their staff, engaging in review processes and encouraging the Wescot employees to take responsibility for some of their own learning, developing them outside of the office as well.

Wescot / Wescot and Experian Sign Multi-Million Pound Deal

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Wescot Credit Services have announced a new multi-million pound contract with global information services company Experian for data services provision over the next two years. The contract extension ensures Wescot will have access to information, which ensures their ability to better assess customer characteristics and enhance its collections performance. As part of this new contract, Wescot will also become one of the first to be integrated into Experian’s new ExPin platform, a dynamic new initiative which changes the way in which data is matched by issuing each client with a unique PIN number. This greatly reduces the chances of data duplication and improves on both data quality and overall match rates. By maximising the opportunity to retrieve data accurately, ExPin will enable Wescot to gain a far more comprehensive portrait of its customers in order to improve upon the services they receive.

wescotWescot are one of the largest debt collecting agencies in the UK, employing over 650 people across three offices. As an ethical debt collecting agency, Wescot Credit Services pride themselves on following stringent government regulations. In some cases, Wescot have even been instrumental in the formation of the regulations themselves, thus determining the debt collection industry standards. The core focus of Wescot is within the banking, telecoms, utility and retail finance sectors. The valuable debt recovery skills which have been built up by the team at Wescot are increasingly being sought by the public sector. Wescot Credit Services also continue to work closely with blue chip clients, with the aim of bringing about favourable resolutions between clients and individuals who have fallen into arrears.

The strategic partnership Wescot have undertaken with Experian will allow the company to improve upon their collections operating model, by delivering further insight into client portfolios and individual customers. Once the ExPin system has been implemented, Wescot will be able to further enhance their performance on behalf of their clients and deliver favourable solutions to debt management, which are tailored to the individual. Wescot remain committed to adhering to the highest standards of compliance in order to protect both their clients and the Wescot brand.

Wescot / Sponsors of Money Advice Scotland

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Money Advice Scotland (MAS) is a registered charity which operates as the national umbrella organisation for the support and promotion of independent, impartial, free and confidential debt and finance advice and financial inclusion. Each year MAS howescotst a conference addressing some of the more important topical issues which affect the financial services and credit services sectors. As one of the sponsors of MAS, Wescot Credit Services proactively engage with the debt advice sector to identify and implement best practice across the board, especially in these times of huge change for the financial services industry.

“Wescot is proud to support the Money Advice Scotland Conference and the excellent work undertaken by the MAS. Wescot is one of the largest debt collection agencies in the UK, employing over 650 staff at three centres in Hull, Glasgow and Saltcoats and servicing more than 5 million consumers each year. Wescot practice initiatives within our business ensuring customers and advisors continue to receive appropriate outcomes and support when working with Wescot.”

This year’s MAS conference, held over the 3rd and 4th of January, addressed the issues relating to changes in the regulatory landscape, including new bankruptcy legislation, welfare reforms and the setting up of the new Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and regulatory board. In early 2014, it is expected that further topical issues within the finance sector will be up for debate, as new reforms shake up the industry and stricter regulations engender a need for a higher level of compliance.

As industry leaders, Wescot have always prided themselves on adopting compliance standards which are unsurpassed in the industry. In many cases, Wescot Credit Services have actually helped to shape the stringent government regulations now in place. Wescot continue to work ethically and to lead the way in terms of dealing with the increased regulations and the impact these have upon the credit services sector. The high compliance standards held by Wescot are recognised by both Trading Standards and the Lending Standards Board. Compliance is at the heart of everything Wescot do, with the strictest standards being built in to all processes to ensure continued adherence to all current regulations and guidelines.