Job Title: Collections Agent
Salary: Competitive
Main Purpose of the Role: The main focus of the Collections Agent role is to focus on outbound calling of customers who are in arrears and treating them with forbearance and due consideration.
Benefits
- Working within a newly refurbished dedicated office space with free onsite employee gym
- Access to a large breakout space with comfortable seating, pool table and arcade games
- Free on-site parking
- Central Line Train station within one-minute walk with quick access to Central London
- Close road links to M11/M25/A406/A12 and London
- Social events
- Pension Scheme
- Healthshield (health cash back scheme and counselling services)
- 28 days annual leave, incl. Bank Holidays, per annum, with an additional day per year of service (capped at 33 days)
- Eye Test / Glasses reimbursement scheme
- Various team and personal reward incentives
Main Duties and Responsibilities:
- Proactively communicating with customers (via telephone, LiveChat, email and SMS), who have failed to meet one or more of their agreed installment payments when they fall due and assessing each customer’s individual circumstances, on a case-by-case basis, to ensure that appropriate forbearance and due consideration is given, and good outcomes are achieved.
- Ensuring that before contacting a customer, all customer account records and notes are reviewed thoroughly to fully understand the customer’s situation and needs (including any preferred communication channels).
- Recognising when information about a customer’s needs is relevant to future interactions and making a record of it on their account.
- Communicating with and completing all actions for a customer, in a timely manner and required time frames, to help ensure the customer is put in a position where they can make effective decisions, on an informed basis, to help achieve good outcomes and customer experience.
- Ensuring that where repayment plans are offered as a form of forbearance, the customers’ needs are taken into consideration and the repayment plan is affordable and sustainable for the customer.
- Signposting customers to free debt support advice and money guidance and advising them of the potential benefits of accessing this and the different range of delivery channels available.
- Identifying signs and triggers which could indicate the customer is vulnerable and ensure that relevant procedures are followed in supporting these customers (for example, where necessary referral to the Specialist Customer Support Team) so that customers who have characteristics of vulnerability, are not disadvantaged
- Ensuring that all communications with customers are clear and easy to understand and adapted to meet the customer’s information needs, to equip them to make decisions that are effective and properly informed.
- Tailoring communications, in line with our vulnerability and reasonable adjustment policies, procedures and processes, to consider the characteristics of the customers intended to receive the communication.
- Sharing ideas and feedback with your line manager where, through your day-to-day experience with customers, you identify that improvements can be made to the customer journey and/or customer outcomes.
- Supporting colleagues and the wider department to ensure department aims are achieved.
- Work towards achieving daily and monthly targets both individually and as a team.
- Ensuring that you adhere to the FCA Conduct Rules and all relevant policies and procedures (and accompanying processes), which include (but are not limited to):
- Forbearance Policy and Procedure,
- Vulnerability Policy and Procedure
- Customers in Financial Difficulty Policy and Procedure
- Data Protection Policy and Procedure
- Acceptable Usage Policy
- Data Retention, Archiving and Destruction Policy
- PCI DSS Procedure; and
- Security and Password Policy.
This is a summary of the role and you are expected to undertake additional ad-hoc duties as and when necessary to fulfil the needs of the business.
Experience and attributes (Essential):
Commitment to perform to high standards and:
- act with integrity;
- act with due care, skill and diligence;
- being open and cooperative with the FCA and other regulators; the PRA and other regulators;
- pay due regard to the interests of customers and treating them fairly; and
- act to deliver good outcomes for customers
Understand the requirements of Principle 12 (Consumer Duty), specifically relating to:
- PDL’s products and services meeting the needs of its target market including any vulnerable consumers to ensure good customers outcomes in regard to:
- affordability,
- sustainability,
- appropriate marketing,
- sound customer understanding (across the customer base); and
- high levels of customer support.
Job Types: Full-time, Permanent
Benefits:
- Company events
- Company pension
- Discounted or free food
- Free parking
- Health & wellbeing programme
- On-site gym
- On-site parking
- Referral programme
Education:
- GCSE or equivalent (required)
Work authorisation:
- United Kingdom (required)
Work Location: In person
