The Secret to Simpler Debt Management Communication

Less Complexity, Better Compliance. How to Make Debt Management Communication Work for You.

The Cost of Operating in the Debt Management Sector

There’s nothing new about the fact that problem debt is on the rise; an estimated 8.3 million UK households are unable to pay off their debt or household bills. It’s a gloomy picture for the UK economy, especially in light of the Office of National Statistics’ verdict that 2017 was the first time in 30 years that UK households’ outgoings exceeded their income.

Given continued growth, the challenges in debt management are somewhat hidden from industry outsiders. But the FCA spotlight means debt management is becoming an increasingly tough sector to operate in – something that rings true whether you work in a charitable operation or profit-making entity.

But it’s not all bad news. Complexity may be increasing due to FCA compliance, but you can manage this by converting your business to multichannel communications.

What Is Multichannel Communication?

Simply described as “communications sent to your customer using a combination of electronic and physical delivery”, multichannel communications outsource your communications to an external supplier. Your team creates files and sends them to us via an HTTPs connection. We then check, classify and send the mail according to guidelines pre-agreed with you.

Clients who prefer electronic post are sent electronic notifications and those who prefer traditional post receive letters. The original electronic documents are safely stored and backed up in easily accessible, secure data storage.

Unifiedpost Group specialises in helping financial service companies remove the effort and cost of complying with FCA requirements. Work with us for the reassurance of working with an experienced provider, able to deliver a range of benefits to your organisation:

ISO accreditations, 27001, 14001, 9001
Registered with the Information Commissioner’s Office
Tier 3 UK-based data centres
Full disaster recovery and business continuity processes in place
Independently assessed “excellent” customer service

How Can Multichannel Communications Help Debt Management Charities and Businesses?

With such highly involved work, you’ll probably agree that the complexity of working in debt consolidation shows no sign of abating. The tailored approach to helping clients with complex debt management packs is core to success. But with such heavy administrative requirements, it reduces your team’s ability to work on value-added tasks and increases complexity across your business.

Can Multichannel Communications Reduce Complexity?

Outsource the complexity related to collating, printing and compiling client debt management packs when you move to Unifiedpost Group. You’ll reduce the internal process to sourcing the correct information, uploading the file and transmitting it to Unifiedpost. Once checked and formatted for dispatch by your Unifiedpost Group contact, the files are returned for approval. Once approved, we create PDFs of the documents and then either:

Upload the documents to a portal to allow your client to log in and access them
Send the documents as an encrypted PDF attachment to an email
Print and insert the documents before posting them directly to your clients.

The result? You reduce your staff’s manual workload and create a leaner, paperless internal process.

Outsourcing the laborious work that debt management packs and mandatory correspondence create has helped StepChange, the UK’s most comprehensive debt advice service, become more efficient and cost-effective with their operation.

We process a range of letters and materials on behalf of StepChange, including:

Advice booklets
Welcome packs
Complex debt management packs
Password letters
Statements

Removing the burden of printing, personalising, storing, packing and posting this mail allows StepChange to focus on their core competencies of debt management, policy reform and research – essential for a charity with limited resources.

“It’s more than an extension of our service. It is our service. We outsource because we know it’s not one of our core competencies, whereas they’ve got the robust processes in place.” Karen Lowes, Procurement Manager – StepChange.

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Here’s how we offer lower costs to our multichannel communication clients:

Lower postage costs. You benefit from the savings we make on postage. As a high-volume customer, we can achieve postage rates beneath those of stamped or franked mail and pass those savings onto our customers.
Lower overheads and staffing costs. Outsourcing your communications to Unifiedpost Group means no more investment in expensive franking machines and printers. This doesn’t just free you of the initial outlay but also reduces maintenance, repairs and update costs, as well as the time involved in managing these facilities. With fewer postage requirements, you can divert resources to more value-added roles.
Lower stationery costs. As well as lower overall levels of print and mail, outsourcing to Unifiedpost Group means you can rely on lower stationery costs. You’ll benefit from our buying power on stationery supplies for a lower price on ink, paper and envelopes than you’d be able to command alone. And without letterhead stationery, you reduce the complexity of managing different paper stocks.

Can Multichannel Communications Improve Debtor Compliance?

Outsourcing to multichannel communication helps you stay in touch with your clients for easier debtor compliance. It can be too easy for clients to default on payments to their DMPs, resulting in the cancellation of the contract. Use multichannel communications to stay in touch with your clients and you can avoid the problems associated with missed payments and void DMPs.

The flexibility of multichannel communications allows you to contact your clients in their preferred channel to remind them to return paperwork or check online notifications, to alert them to a payment deadline and so on. You stay in touch with your clients, the creditors receive their payments and your clients continue to pay into their DMPs without defaulting.

Unifiedpost Group’s adaptable tools allow you to track SMS and emails to check that they’ve been received and opened. You’ll be alert to potential client issues before they get out of hand, and able to intervene to ensure the success of the DMP. And using our tools means you don’t need to invest in additional technology or training and can reduce the time you allocate to follow-ups for a more efficient way of doing business.

How Do Multi-Channel Communications Strengthen Information Security?

Protect yourself and your clients with Unifiedpost Group’s secure systems. The very nature of debt management means processing highly sensitive information. Avoid putting yourself at risk of FCA sanctions and protect your clients’ sensitive data by working with a partner with proven financial services credentials. Partnering with Unifiedpost Group allows you to work with confidence, treating passwords, bank details and other personal data with the highest of respect.

Work with Unifiedpost Group for:

SFTP connection for safe data transfer
Document check on each item for accuracy and compliance
Minimal paper post handling for better security
Fully secured and backed- up online storage
ISO 9001 and 27001 accredited for your complete reassurance

More Reasons to Move to Multichannel Communications

Working with Unifiedpost Group means you’ll see benefits beyond cost savings, reduced complexity, strengthened security and better client compliance. With ISO 14001 accreditation, you’ll be working with a business that actively manages its environmental impact and will help you do the same. You’ll be able to reduce your carbon footprint by using only the resources necessary. Transitioning to a mix of print and mail and electronic communications cuts emissions and reduces paper and ink usage for a more ecological business process.

Our approach to customer service means many of our clients consider us to be more of a business partner than a supplier. Partnering with you, we work across your business to make sure you and your team benefit fully from outsourcing your client communication. From working with your marketing department to ensure updated logos and font guidelines to coordinating data and security requirements with your IT department, you’ll know that working with Unifiedpost Group means your business is in safe hands.

Ready to Improve the Way You Do Business with Unifiedpost Group?

Moving your debt consolidation organisation to multichannel communications is fast and easy. By providing full training and ongoing support, our team of experts will help you transition your communications for a more efficient, cost-effective and secure business model. Can you afford not to move to Unifiedpost Group?

Contact our experts today to discuss your multichannel communication savings.

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