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South Lanarkshire Council case study
South Lanarkshire Council wanted to take a different approach to recovering its council tax arrears which would improve its recovery performance. A unique partnership and information-sharing approach was adopted, with staff sharing office space, systems sharing data and payments seamlessly reconciled between the two organisations.
We changed the culture of debt recovery completely, taking the view that late- or non-payers are customers with a problem, rather than customers who refuse to pay. Additional education and training has been delivered to all in a customer-facing role in line with this new culture. Our collection staff are trained to act as financial counsellors, well versed with benefit entitlement and welfare rights. New payment methods have been introduced, reducing the risk of further default.
Customer education has been a major success story of South Lanarkshire Council’s change of approach on several fronts. Again, the personal approach makes all the difference. When our agents visit non-payers, often there is a lack of understanding of the seriousness of the situation, generally caused by people refusing to acknowledge there is a problem or the scale of it.
BCW Group, in conjunction with South Lanarkshire Council has successfully pioneered a new, more human approach to debt collection, whereby legal action in the form of bank or wage arrestment is always the last resort. Through focussed data enrichment and segmentation methodologies, we have been successful in substantially improving our contact rates with the non-payers – helping them break the cycle of debt without the ignominy of facing arrestments via Sheriff Officers, and paying additional fees which may further compound their financial hardship.
With this new approach, BCW Group and South Lanarkshire Council are making significant headway into reducing council tax arrears.
We changed the culture of debt recovery completely, taking the view that late- or non-payers are customers with a problem, rather than customers who refuse to pay. Additional education and training has been delivered to all in a customer-facing role in line with this new culture. Our collection staff are trained to act as financial counsellors, well versed with benefit entitlement and welfare rights. New payment methods have been introduced, reducing the risk of further default.
Customer education has been a major success story of South Lanarkshire Council’s change of approach on several fronts. Again, the personal approach makes all the difference. When our agents visit non-payers, often there is a lack of understanding of the seriousness of the situation, generally caused by people refusing to acknowledge there is a problem or the scale of it.
BCW Group, in conjunction with South Lanarkshire Council has successfully pioneered a new, more human approach to debt collection, whereby legal action in the form of bank or wage arrestment is always the last resort. Through focussed data enrichment and segmentation methodologies, we have been successful in substantially improving our contact rates with the non-payers – helping them break the cycle of debt without the ignominy of facing arrestments via Sheriff Officers, and paying additional fees which may further compound their financial hardship.
With this new approach, BCW Group and South Lanarkshire Council are making significant headway into reducing council tax arrears.