Cabot colleagues see success and recognition during 2023 Conference and Award season

During the final quarter of 2023, some of our Cabot Credit Management colleagues have received awards and recognition at a number of key industry events. We take a look at the success our people have created and why they stood out so much…

Credit Services Association UKCCC Conference and Awards

September saw success at the Credit Services Association (CSA) UK Conference and Awards. The CSA are the leading UK trade association for the Collections Industry and ensure their members put customers at the heart of everything they do so that they have the confidence to engage. They also take action to ensure that the highest standards are upheld and ongoing engagement with industry regulators and government is maintained.

At the conference, James McGrath (Head of Data Protection) and Lindsey Tittensor (Head of Data Innovation) were asked to speak on the topics of the ‘Future of credit information’ and the impacts for Compliance. Neil Hussey (Communications Manager) was also asked to share details of Encore’s Economic Freedom study as part of sessions on financial literacy and financial capability. They all received good questions and feedback on the insight they shared.

We were then delighted that Cabot Financial’s Rhianne Forbes won the CSA Merit Award for Complaints Handling. The award is given to someone “who has done extraordinary work to resolve unprecedented issues for their firm’s customers” and we are so pleased that Rhianne was recognised by the judges for what she has achieved at Cabot. The award is a testament to her hard work but also shows the ethos and standards of our Complaints Team as a whole.

Our Cabot Financial Complaints Team were also nominated on the night. They were recognised in the Team Award Category which is for “providing high levels of service, quality, and dedication, as well as demonstrating outstanding teamwork in the last 12 months - contributing to the wider success of their company and to the benefit of the customer”.

Ross Harris from our Learning and Development Team was also shortlisted for the Kim MacMillan award “recognising outstanding contribution to Learning and Development in their company”.

Whilst Ross and the team didn’t win their categories, we are extremely proud of them for the work and effort that led to them making a highly competitive shortlist. A public thank you to everyone in the Complaints Team for their continued efforts to do their best for our consumers every day and thanks to Ross for many years of supporting so many people’s learning across Cabot.

Women in Credit Conference and Awards

Our Group General Counsel & Company Secretary Sarah Whiteley was a guest speaker on the topic of the ‘Women in Finance Charter and where we are today’. The charter is something that we have signed up to in collaboration with the Credit Services Association.

You can read more from Sarah in her 60 second interview prior to the conference:

https://www.creditstrategy.co.uk/women-in-credit-conference-60-seconds-interviews/sarah-whiteley

We were absolutely delighted to have Mortimer Clarke Solictors’ Abbie Earls and Cabot Financial’s Charlotte-Rose Domjan nominated for the Colleague of the Year and Innovator of the Year award respectively at the Women in Credit Awards.

Sarah told us:

“These events shine a light on the amazing female talent we have within our industry and business, and it was a wonderful opportunity to recognise and celebrate their achievements.”

Whilst Abbie and Charlotte didn’t take home a trophy on the night, here’s some of their nominations to show why we are so proud of what they do:

Abbie

“Abbie has stands out both personally and professionally and is someone who any organisation would be proud to describe as ‘Home Grown talent’. Her loyalty, focus and dedication to her colleagues shines through.

Abbie’s role requires hard work and dedication. It requires great people skills at all levels, detailed knowledge of the business, the ability to react and change at any given moment, quickly recognise any risk and compliance issues and react accordingly, effectively collaborate with many colleagues in the business. She is not afraid to be challenged and challenge others, and that is important in a large growing fast paced organisation.”

Charlotte

“In 2022 Cabot created an initiative to align our customer journeys through our digital and voice channels to ensure good customer outcomes are achieved in digital as they were through voice. Charlotte was instrumental in creating the “dynamic minimum payment” initiative. The new solution that Charlotte lead, utilised customer and external data to assess the customer’s affordability to help restore their financial health.

Charlotte has lived all of the Cabot values in making this happen; Finding a better way, being inclusive & collaborative, and caring putting people first and engaging with honesty, empathy, and respect.”

Vulnerability Gala and CCS Awards

We were thrilled and very proud to see that Mortimer Clarke Solicitors (MCS) named 'Legal Services Provider of the Year' at the Credit Strategy Vulnerability Awareness Gala CCS Awards in October.

The gala celebrates those “at the front of innovation for vulnerable consumers and the people who've shown unprecedented levels of resilience and adaptability whilst delivering outstanding customer support to those that need it most.”

The judges were impressed by our high customer satisfaction and continuous desire to improve. We decided to really put ourselves to the test over the last 12 months by having MCS participate in the Institute of Customer Service (ICS) survey, which compares our firm directly with major banks and building societies. The last time we did this was 2019 and we were keen to show that we have maintained our high standards through several years of change and challenges for the country as a whole. Overall, we scored 76.8%, with over 75% for Experience, Ethos, Ethics and Emotional Connection.

Compared to the 2019 results, MCS saw a 5% overall improvement on ‘Experience’. We were delighted with these results, which placed us very close to the overall UK ICS average and banks and building societies in numerous key areas. This is a huge achievement; particularly given the nature of the legal services we provide and it’s a testimony to the hard work and pride our people put into their work that consumers are so positive about our impact for them.

The judges said the MCS submission “set out several ways that they have developed their service offered to customers and clients, including new strategies and an engaging communication approach.”

MCS Chief Operating Officer Andrew Rogers told us:

“This latest award for MCS continues to recognise the passion and skill all of our team demonstrate as they look to continuously develop a litigation service that delivers effective outcomes for our customers and clients. I am, as ever, immensely proud of the work we do and the team who deliver excellence every single day”.

Well done again to everyone at MCS for their award and thank you for what you do.

Thank you to our nominees, winners, speakers and colleagues for the effort, commitment and care they give every day to help our consumers and the people they work alongside to succeed.