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This blog written by Ann Tolgyesi, Collections Operations Lead at Pactum for Multitude. Pactum Collections GmbH is the centralised collections company owned by Multitude, and it handles collections for Ferratum Bank, Sweep Bank and Capital Box.
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Ann’s role as Operations Lead for the Swedish market is to oversee the daily operations and together with her team providing customized solution for our customer which might be in financial difficulties.
Customers today are faced with new challenges such the aggressive marketing of over-consumption and ‘buy now-pay later -schemes’ offered for any product everywhere. Exposure to social media influencers and other forms of marketing means today’s generation has more pressure for to live beyond their means. Approaches to debt have also changed in comparison to prior generations that adopted a more conservative approach often with plans on how they would make repayments.
At Multitude our approach is to lending responsibly with affordability at the core. This involves providing loans to customers that can afford them, applying stringent procedures that consider the ability to repay loans fully and on time.
So, did you know? 1/3 of people have sufficient knowledge of their finances, and out of the remaining 2/3 70 % of people are heavily indebted. (This only applies for the Swedish market)
In the cases where customer circumstances change or they are no longer making payments, we collect debt with certain principles underpinned by our value of customer centricity in mind.
Being able to show empathy during customer contact is key, establishing a trusting relationship and being understanding of a person’s vulnerable situation is imperative, especially when taking into consideration the past years’ multiple crises. Each one of us has felt the consequences of higher inflation and rising costs, due to the pandemic, the war in Ukraine and many other macro-environmental factors that are out of our control.
So, what does being responsible in collections actually mean? Responsibility in collections doesn’t always mean agreeing to the customers’ demands or granting excessive forbearance measures, it reflects more to assessing the situation the customer is in and educating them about future consequences of not being able to pay your loans back. Short term glitches in finances are understandable and can be dealt with keeping both debtor and business happy.
Our job is to help and guide the customer on making certain choices and decisions, and equally offering the best solution for the consumer and the company in the long run. We also take care to understand the market and culture of the countries where our customers are located in order to provide the best possible solutions.
When no common solution is found in early collections, we have responsible debt collection agency partners we work with in close contact to help the customer finding the right path to get out of their difficult situation.
At Pactum, we invested in the modern digital world we live in today. We do this by offering customer support, online, and we can quickly and accurately respond to any queries the customer has in real time. This enables the customer to have a conversation as soon as they wish to on how to get back on track with their repayments. In today’s cashless world, we can offer different payment methods to suit any preferences.
We work hard to build a trusting relationship with our customers as I believe that this is key to the long-term success of any business. This is done by working together to build a strong, honest, and open relationship with the customer. Educating debtors about the product and consequences for not paying is a vital part of creating awareness and transparency between customer and business and therefore the customer is always at the heart of what we do.
Responsible collections is therefore about empathy, education, support and building trust by staying adaptable to the reason, we are all here; to serve the customer.