How Lowell earned top scores from 90.5% of its customers
Lowell helps thousands of people each year find the best way to manage their debt. Talking about personal finances is hard, so service has to make people comfortable. Real-time feedback across 14 touchpoints shows Lowell, and the creditors it works for, how well it is doing.
01The challenge
The challenge: customer feedback in debt collection and credit management
Service that has to work in difficult conversations.
Lowell understands the stigma around debt. Delivering service that helps people feel comfortable discussing their finances matters more than anything. The original creditors Lowell buys debt from also care about how their former customers are treated, so Lowell needs to show them.
Lowell wanted a customer-centric culture, better quality feedback, and data in real time for strategic and day-to-day decisions, alongside external review sites such as Trustpilot.
Frontline agents seeing their customers' comments and scores.
02What changed
The fix: email surveys within two hours and sentiment analysis by topic
A survey within two hours, and topics that point to the fix.
Surveys go out by email within two hours of an interaction, at more than 14 touchpoints. Scores for ease and for the agent show what is going well, how quickly queries are resolved, and how knowledgeable and professional staff are.
The sentiment engine reads every comment and sorts it into topics specific to Lowell's business. One topic, how easy the website is to use, went straight to the digital team to fix. Insights also go to contact center operations and continuous improvement, and Discover reports reach the executive team.
Only 9% of feedback contained an area for improvement.
03The result
The result: 90.5% top agent scores and a higher Trustpilot rating
Agents coached by their own customers.
Lowell has collected more than 40,000 pieces of feedback on topics such as manner, attitude, understanding, and knowledge. An average of 90.5% of customers gave agents the highest scores, and the gamified Frontline dashboard shows each agent their strengths and where to improve.
A thank-you page at the end of each survey invites customers to leave a Trustpilot review. Lowell's Trustpilot score rose from 4.2 to 4.4.
Public Trustpilot score, out of 5.
Lowell results at a glance
Lowell is a credit management company in Northampton, regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority, which expects firms to evidence good customer outcomes. Feedback on how customers are treated matters to Lowell's clients, the original creditors, too.
| Measure | Before | Result |
|---|---|---|
| Customers giving agents the top score | Not measured | 90.5% average |
| Trustpilot score | 4.2 | 4.4 |
| Feedback captured | Limited | 40,000+ pieces |
| Feedback containing an improvement area | Not measured | 9% |
How to run a program like Lowell’s
- Survey within two hoursSend an email survey shortly after each conversation, at every touchpoint in the journey.
- Score ease and the agentAsk how easy it was and how the agent did, plus a free-text comment.
- Sort comments by topicUse sentiment analysis to route topics, such as website usability, to the team that owns them.
- Coach with the customer's wordsGive each agent a gamified dashboard of their own feedback.
- Ask for a public reviewLink to Trustpilot from the thank-you page.
Voice of Customers runs every step on one platform, from the survey to the follow-up.
The Frontline Dashboard is gamified to make it more interactive and engaging for our agents and team leaders. An agent's strengths and improvement areas are instantly highlighted, which effectively allows our customers to become their coach.
What they use
The parts of Voice of Customers behind Lowell’s results.
Every module runs on one platform, with surveys by text message, email, voice, and web form, a sentiment engine that reads every comment, and follow-up that gives each unhappy customer an owner.
- Email surveys within two hours
- Sentiment topics
- Frontline Engagement
- Discover reporting
Take it with you
Get the Lowell case study as a two-page PDF.
The results, the charts, and how they did it, in a format you can forward to your team or bring to a budget meeting.
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