Trade body urges reform of customer telephone call security processes – new report

A new report from the Credit Services Association (CSA) highlights the consequences of consumer wariness when it comes to receiving unexpected telephone contact from debt collection agencies and outlines some potential solutions.

The growth of fraudulent ‘scam’ calls during the pandemic has raised problems for legitimate firms who, as part of their security processes, require customers to pass a series of security questions prior to divulging who is calling.

Many customers are naturally reluctant to share personal data with a caller they don’t know and, as a result, too many calls are aborted before the substance of the conversation is even reached.

The Outbound Contact Dilemma – understanding and overcoming the barriers to customer engagement report finds that a quarter of CSA member firms report that over one in six of their outbound calls falter because of customer hesitancy to verify their identity details.

Engagement and communication between debt collection agencies and consumers is a vital element of reaching a positive outcome for those in financial difficulty, and problems with establishing this relationship have been exacerbated by the ever-increasing rise of fraudulent calls.

Collection agencies are required to take necessary steps to ensure that they are speaking to the correct person in order to minimise the risk of causing unnecessary distress and also to safeguard the data that they hold. 

However, a failure to establish a line of communication with a consumer can hinder the process towards resolving an individual’s financial difficulties.

CSA Chief Executive Chris Leslie says: “Confusion over security questions at the start of an unexpected phone call isn’t just a bad customer experience, it can be a potential obstacle to offering help or even resolving a customer’s problem debt. We need to be making dialogue and engagement easier for the customer and do all we can to remove or at least lower the unnecessary barriers to these crucial conversations occurring.

“A significant number of people have out-of-date email or postal addresses, and so offering help over the telephone is sometimes the only option. However, if dialogue is disrupted right at the outset, there is a risk that the customer is not alerted to their situation promptly or informed of the availability of forbearance on debts, for example, which could lead to customers losing out as a result.

“Customer ID and verification is unquestionably an important part of the process, but so too are the benefits of dialogue and engagement which risk being lost completely. Solving this problem is critical to resolving thousands of customer debt issues.” 

The report analyses challenges faced by firms – challenges similar to those in any service sector involving telephone contact centre working – and recommends potential solutions and improvements that industry stakeholders and the CSA could pursue to help tackle the problem, including:

• Promoting best industry practice so collection agencies and creditors provide greater advance notification to reassure customers of potential contact
• Urging firms to explain more clearly to customers why security questions are being asked (ie, for data protection purposes) and to explore more reassuring techniques, such as asking for less sensitive personal information (such as an email address) or partially disclosing already held information (such as a house number) for confirmatory purposes, where viable
• Developing new technical solutions to make in-call customer verification simpler, such as in-call text messaging to illustrate authentication
• Seeking clarity from the Information Commissioner’s Office and Financial Conduct Authority on their expectations for identity verification on outbound calls, to improve consistency and address mistrust
• Continuing engagement with ‘Stop Scams UK’ around the on-going development of, and access to, their proposed ‘159 Scheme’
• Working with other industry trade bodies and regulators to ensure the gains of customer engagement are not crowded out because of outdated customer verification processes.

Chris Leslie adds: “Thousands of customers face the dilemma of sharing personal details on calls they are wary about each day – and industries such as ours must help find better solutions and provide greater reassurance. Conversations need to happen, the engagement really matters, and we can’t allow this conundrum to continue as an obstacle any longer.” 

Notes To Editors:

• The new CSA Report “The Outbound Contact Dilemma - understanding and overcoming barriers to customers” is now published on the Credit Services Association website and details a series of key considerations for CSA member firms to take into account. 
• The CSA’s #heretohelp campaign highlights the importance and benefits of engagement between consumers and debt collection agencies.
• The Credit Services Association (CSA) is the only National Trade Association in the UK for organisations active in the debt collection and debt purchase industry. The Association, which has a history dating back to 1906, has over 300 member companies which represent 90% of the industry, and employ 11,000 people. At any one time its members hold up to £60 billion for collection, returning nearly £4 billion in collections to the UK economy per annum. As the voice of the collections industry, our vision is to build confidence in debt collection by making the entire process clear, easy to understand and less stressful for all those involved. Further information on the CSA can be found at www.csa-uk.com. 
• For more information contact CSA Head of Marketing Colleen Peel on 0191 217 0775 or email colleen.peel@csa-uk.com

View report

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