Enforcement post lockdown

Local authorities have been stretched; teams will have been working hard to ensure that they are keeping vital services running and collecting the revenue they require to provide those services will be a priority once the lockdown restrictions are eased.

We anticipate that there will be a flurry of activity once the current lockdown ends. Excel is fully prepared to support our clients as soon as they are ready.

Employed enforcement agents

At Excel, we directly employ all our enforcement agents, which means that once lockdown restrictions are eased, we can very quickly bring them back off furlough, to return to service as usual.

Enforcement companies using self-employed agents are likely to encounter difficulties in enabling an immediate restoration of service.

Recognising vulnerability

All our agents are trained to recognise and signpost vulnerability; our welfare team have Level 3 qualifications in vulnerability and mental health awareness and are further trained in mental first-aid. This will be critical after an event such as the pandemic we have experienced.

There will undoubtedly be an increase in genuine cases of financial hardship and we must adopt a sympathetic and balanced approach in identifying and dealing with these.

Following the lead of our clients

We will work closely with each of our clients to ensure that we are following their specific guidance and will communicate this to our teams. Caseloads will be managed according to emerging local authority policies and we will adapt our service delivery accordingly.

Using technology

Our debtor contact strategy includes the use of a multi-channel communications approach that includes a debtor app, live chat, emails, phone calls, text messages and web forms. This means when debtors need to get in touch, they have a variety of accessible options at their fingertips and we can instantly update casefiles with the relevant information for client review.