Knowledge Centre - Case Study

Moorcroft Improves Payment Collections with Direct Debit expert

Moorcroft seeks control

Moorcroft is one of the largest debt-recovery agencies in the country. The company has expanded rapidly since it started in 1989 and it now works for a large number of blue-chip clients. The number of customers in Moorcroft's payment system reflects the company's success. It collects payments from more than 1.3 million individuals. In the past, Moorcroft relied on cheques, standing orders and even post office books to collect money from its payers. These collection methods were relatively costly and required Moorcroft's customers to initiate the payment process. Moorcroft wanted to change this and take control of setting up payments. The company decided that the best way to do this was to introduce Direct Debit collections.

Direct Debit Limited offers a solution

Moorcroft spoke to The Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) about starting to collect Direct Debits. In response, the bank advised Moorcroft to contact a company that could help it manage Direct Debit collections effectively. RBS recommended Direct Debit Limited and Moorcroft was particularly interested in Direct Debit Limited's sophisticated payment-management system, Direct Debit expert (DDe™). DDe™ automates payment processes and manages the complex rules and regulations of the Direct Debit scheme. The product's extensive features make it a powerful tool for improving efficiency and maximising revenue. Graham Tye, Financial Controller at Moorcroft, says: "After our first meeting it was clear that Direct Debit Limited could provide us with everything we needed, so we didn’t need to talk to anyone else. "Moorcroft wanted DDe™ to streamline processes across its numerous call centres. As a result, Direct Debit Limited tailored DDe™ to meet Moorcroft's needs and integrated the system into Moorcroft's existing environment.

Takes control of payments

Only a few months after deploying DDe™, Moorcroft began to see a direct financial benefit from the Direct Debit collection method. "Collecting by Direct Debit has given us a huge advantage," says Graham. "We are now in control of setting up and maintaining the collection process. We are adding over 500 new Direct Debit instructions a day and set-ups are much easier to process." Moorcroft encourages debtors to repay their debts faster if they can and Direct Debits support this.

Ensures compliance

The company recognised that compliance could be difficult with large numbers of Direct Debits set up each day and more than 350 call centre staff. Manually ensuring compliance would have been time-consuming and costly. But with Direct Debit Limited's help, compliance is straightforward. DDe™ simplifies Moorcroft's payment management and automatically ensures that the company complies with the Direct Debit scheme regulations.

Grows to meet business needs

In DDe™, Moorcroft found a product that could scale to meet the needs arising from all of its call centres. DDe™ has been a huge success at Moorcroft. Graham says: “The system answers all of our queries and Direct Debit is a much stronger method of collection than other methods because it's much easier to process and is more reactive. We are delighted with the progress so far and are very happy with the product."