Virtual Debt Support Assistant

截至2020年4月15日，自3月中旬以来，约有140万人申请了新的通用信贷，国家统计局的一项调查显示，约30%的企业在3月下半月减少了员工的就业和/或工作时间。由于冠状病毒大流行，随着收入减少，公司难以为客户提供量身定制的债务支持，一个虚拟的债务支持助理专注于帮助客户遇到困难支付公用事业和其他账单，以验证他们的余额，并同意推迟，延长或定制的付款计划，以减少焦虑，增加获得帮助。为供应商提供更好的解决方案，以平衡日益增加的债务日、减少的员工可用性以及对日益脆弱的客户群的照顾责任。由于新型冠状病毒疫情，消费者正在经历更大的财务压力，而其基本服务的供应商正在解雇员工并减少服务可用性。因此，公司需要保持对现金流的控制，客户需要额外的支持和新的选择来帮助他们度过难关。我们创新的虚拟债务支持助理旨在满足这一需求，同时减少供应商的负担，同时为客户提供更好，更贴心的体验。包括可编程的短信聊天，可引导到带有解释器视频的个性化着陆页（根据个人情况，有问题的账户和未付余额）和一系列“智能决策树”LED屏幕，允许用户拒绝/查询余额，支付，延迟或配置定制的付款计划，创新的助理减少了讨论未付余额的焦虑，为用户提供了选择性，并为那些遇到困难的人提供了额外的帮助。与供应商和代理商的核心系统完全集成，账户真实的时间更新，消除了人工处理的需要，并减少了不准确和令人痛苦的客户通信的可能性。在构建和测试了助手后，最近扩展的项目看到该解决方案在安全环境中与英国公用事业和宽带供应商进行了试点，以生成用户和客户利益数据，目的是允许在一个扩展这些客户的客户接触点的范围，并进入该行业内的其他客户实例。

As of 15 April 2020 There have been around 1.4 million new Universal Credit claims since mid-March and an ONS survey showed that around 30% of businesses reduced employment and/or hours for their workers during the second half of March.As a result of the Coronovirus pandemic, customers across the country are feeling increased financial pressure as incomes are reduced and companies struggle to offer tailored debt support to customers during this difficult time.A virtual debt support assistant focussed on helping customers experiencing difficulty to pay utility and other bills to verify their balance and agree a deferred, extended or tailored payment plan that reduces anxiety and increases access to help. A better solution for suppliers trying to balance increasing debtor days, reduced staff availability and with a duty of care to increasingly vulnerable customer bases.As a result of the coronavirus pandemic, consumers are experiencing increased financial stress at a time when the suppliers of their essential services are furloughing staff and reducing service availability. As a result, companies need to retain control of cashflow and customers need additional support and new options to help them get through a difficult time. Our innovative Virtual Debt Support Assistant seeks to address this need, simultaneously reducing the load on suppliers while providing a better, more caring experience for customers.Comprising of programmable SMS chat leading to a personalised landing page with explainer video (personalised to the individual, the account in question and balance outstanding) and a series of 'intelligent decision tree' led screens allowing the user to reject / query the balance, pay, defer or configure a tailored payment plan, the innovative assistant reduces the anxiety of discussing outstanding balances, provides optionality for the user and sign posts additional help for those experiencing difficulty to pay. Fully integrated with supplier and agency core systems, accounts are updated real time removing the need for manual handling and reducing the likelihood of inaccurate and distressing customer communication.Having built and tested the assistant the recently extended project sees the solution piloted in secure environments with UK utility and broadband suppliers in order to generate user and client benefit data with the objective of allowing wider adoption within an extended range of those client's customer touch points AND into further client instances within the sector.