BCW Group plc Use EuroDirect's CAMEO to optimise debt recovery

Leading credit management and outsourcing services provider BCW Group plc have chosen consumer intelligence specialists EuroDirect to develop an innovative debt recovery model that will deliver previously unachievable performance improvements.

BCW Group has started using EuroDirect's CAMEO Analysis & Stats postcode indicators in an innovative behavioural profiling model which targets debtor cases on the margins between so called 'can't pay' and 'won't pay' market segments. It expects to see incremental performance improvements on all portfolios of debt it operates on over the next twelve months, by prescribing variable collections processes to different debt profiles depending on the collections industry's key 'propensity to pay' metric.

The debt collection industry is increasingly facing challenges associated with high customer movement - due to long-term social trends such as the growth in single-occupancy dwelling arrangements - and rising levels of personal household debt.

One aspect of BCW Group's new profiling model will use 'historical electoral roll' data and 'residential movement' indicators from CAMEO Stats, to implement predictive modelling techniques to identify debtors with a high propensity to move and make them primary targets.

Steve Preston, Head of Strategy at BCW Group plc comments:
"The utilisation of this type of consumer intelligence in our business has been hugely advantageous for us and sets us apart from the traditional credit management organisations that have traditionally relied on a 'one size fits all' approach. The upshot is better association of collection process to case-type, and early tests have shown extremely promising results."

John Dobson, Managing Director, EuroDirect comments:
"BCW Group plc have been highly proactive using consumer intelligence in this way to improve performance for its clients. This new process will inevitably produce highly efficient targeting campaigns which will not only improve debtor tracking, but will also improve debt recovery rates. This can only further improve their reputation as an innovative and effective service provider."

BCW Group have spent the past five years breaking down the image of debt collection companies as dinosaurs with its fresh approach to customer-focused recovery processes and ground-breaking partnerships with private and public-sector organisations across the UK, Europe and North America.

It has developed a slew of new approaches, winning accolades from industry observers and media organisations alike. In 2002, a BBC documentary gave an eye-opening account of BCW Group's approach to collecting council tax, dismissing the traditional 'straight to court' philosophy as out of date and under-performing. It has since raised council tax debt collection by as much as 10% in parts of the UK.