Scotcash Annual Report 2021-22 - Report - Page 11
2020-21 ANNUAL REPORT & FINANCIAL STATEMENTS
2020-21 ANNUAL REPORT & FINANCIAL STATEMENTS
Praise and
partnerships
IT, systems
and WFH
Customers’ feedback during lockdown remained exceptional.
Meanwhile, we launched new partnerships and continued others.
After the ‘Beast from the East’ Scotcash strengthened all our systems
and processes so we could work remotely if we were cut off from the
office. That meant we could make a seamless switch to working from
home (WFH) when the pandemic struck.
In our annual customer survey 93%
of customers described Scotcash’s
services as very high or high
quality, and comments included:
“The Scotcash adviser was a joy
to interact with, from start to finish
she was incredibly helpful, friendly,
positive and empathetic, and I
cannot put into words how good
the level of service offered to me
was,” and “the person I spoke with
was beyond helpful, she went out
of her way to help me. Brilliant
service.”
Our customer survey enables us
to continually improve how we
deliver our products and services,
encouraging Scotcash customers
to be forthright in their feedback.
They tell us how they heard about
Scotcash, the best things about our
service, how we have helped them
and anything they would like us to
change. Thanks to this feedback
we develop new services and
partnerships.
Snoop and ng Homes
In July 2020 we launched a new
partnership with Snoop, a free,
secure money management app.
We offer this useful money-saving
tool to everyone who applies to
Scotcash for a loan, whether or not
they are successful. Like Scotcash
it is regulated by the FCA.
The initiative continues Scotcash’s
long track record in effective
partnership working. Collaborations
with Money Advice Scotland,
Glasgow CAB, and numerous
local authorities and housing
associations have all been effective
thanks to a shared purpose
between Scotcash and partners to
support the most vulnerable.
One example is our work with
ng homes. 2021 marks a decade
since ng homes supported the
establishment of a Scotcash
lending service to their tenants.
During a 2021 event organised by
Responsible Finance and Fair4All
Finance, Lynne Cooper, ng homes’
Director of Housing, said:
“When we were presented with
the chance to work with Scotcash
we saw it as a really positive
opportunity. We saw Scotcash as
a safe pair of hands and a way for
tenants to avoid crippling interest
rates from doorstep and other
high-interest lenders.
“10 years later our partnership with
Scotcash continues to go from
strength to strength. It aligns with
our values and our vision to create
a community where people can
flourish and prosper.”
Tackling illegal
money lending
High-interest lenders come in legal
and illegal guises. For the past five
years we have worked with the
Scottish Illegal Money Lending Unit
to disrupt illegal money lending.
Their funding to establish our
Scotcash Money MOT service in
2018 has continued to have an
impact: as you can read elsewhere
in this report, the service proved
a lifeline to new and existing
customers in 2020-21.
Scotcash added to
Experian panel
After extensive work during 202021, we were able to announce in
April that Scotcash was one of
the first three community lenders
added to credit reference agency
Experian’s loan comparison
service.
With more and more people
excluded from mainstream financial
services for the first time in their
lives as a result of the pandemic,
this will bring our services offering
affordable credit to the attention
of a new audience. We’ll bring
more news about the impact of this
partnership in next year’s report.
In February 2018 Anticyclone
Hartmut – the ‘Beast from the East’
– brought a prolonged spell of subfreezing temperatures and snowfall
to the UK, followed by storms.
Sadly, several people were killed
and injured in weather-related
events. The conditions caused
chaos for Glasgow’s and the
UK’s transport system too, with
people unable to get to work and
widespread power cuts and delays.
Unable to come into the office,
many of Scotcash staff could not
do their jobs remotely – at the time
we were not geared up for remote
working, and such a prolonged
occurrence of sub-zero weather
was rare.
But the experience prompted us
to invest in technology to enable
everyone to work from home,
and this hardware and software
meant that when we had to switch
to home working in 2020 as the
pandemic struck we were able to
do so overnight.
“There was no interruption
whatsoever to our operations when
we switched over to working from
home,” says Sharon MacPherson,
Scotcash CEO.
“When the ‘Beast from the East’
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caused havoc, we’d ensured every
member of our team could work
from home, investing in appropriate
IT, equipment and processes, all
compliant with data protection,
cybersecurity and health and
safety. That meant in March this
year we could make the switch to
home working in minutes.
“The situation has made us think
about how we’ll use our offices in
the future, and we’re discussing the
experiences of working from home
with our team. It’s something some
staff love but others don’t enjoy,
so we’re taking all views on board
as we plan the future shape of the
business.”
Will Laverty is Scotcash IT Manager.
The process was relatively smooth,
he says, with the technology
and our systems proving robust.
The pandemic also meant many
customers started using our online
services more, he adds:
“All our customers wanted and
expected to engage more with us
online – even people who were
previously reticent about doing
things through websites. So the ‘My
Account’ part of the website came
into its own this year, and although
we did an enormous amount of
work over the phone, we increased
contact with customers by email
and text message too.
“Online benefit checking proved
a lifeline too – and so did the
partnership with Snoop.”
Will has enjoyed working from
home:
“We can meet as a team more
easily than before, and it’s actually
easier to give people the support
they need – I can log on with them
and share my screen if they need
to see how to do something. I get
more done.”
We asked all of our staff how we
could best support them as they
moved to working from home, and
during the course of the year. We
conducted a couple of staff surveys
during 2020-21 too, with 100% of
staff agreeing that “we have found
meaningful ways to stay connected
as colleagues while working
remotely.”
In March 2020 we needed to
match resources to our immediate
drop in income and switched some
staff to furlough for either two or
four months. We took great care
to communicate regularly and
reassure them we would bring
them back to work as early as
possible.
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