With an evolving future for debt recovery, it is important that companies who operate in this industry do everything they can to adapt to the new changes and remain at the head of their game. One of the major factors that is affecting the industry at the minute is the change in regulations, as debt recovery now falls under the jurisdiction of the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA). The FCA have implemented a number of stricter rules to regulate the way companies operate when recovering debts for their clients. Further to this is the decrease in average disposable income, which will increase the amount of time it takes for companies to recover debts and thus increase running costs. To overcome these obstacles, Wescot has changed the way they work in a variety of ways.

In businesses such as debt recovery, there is a need for a high volume of correspondence using traditional mail. A hard copy that informs customer that they need to repay their debt is far harder to ignore than an email that might never be read. The disadvantage to using letters is the cost of sending out large volumes, as well as the time it takes to create the mail. Adare is a company that has developed new software called ‘SmartEdit’ which dramatically reduces the time it takes to change small details on letters and therefore speed up the delivery. The debt recovery company is making full use of the SmartEdit technology to alter documents quickly and use preapproved templates to rapidly produce the volume of letters they require.

One of the greatest changes that the FCA have made to the debt recovery is a demand for a more efficient complaints management process. Equinti, a software and IT company from the UK that provides automated procedures that will speed up their background processes has been contracted by Wescot to automate their complaints system. Equinti’s Perito software revolutionises complaint management as it can prioritise important complaints as well as provide user definable fields to further increase efficiency.

The final change for Wescot is the employment of Claire Larson as Operational Risk Manager. It is hoped by the debt recovery company that Larson will be able to shake up the risk management systems at the company to deliver far greater results in the future.