Debt Recovery and Collections Assistant / Collections Officer

Job Title: Debt Recovery and Collections Assistant

Location: Guildford

Salary: Competitive dependant on experience

Job Type: Full Time, Permanent

Guildways is a trading name of Lovetts Ltd who have 25 years’ experience in collecting debts on behalf of their clients. We pride ourselves on operating ethically whilst providing exceptional service levels. Guildways is a fast growing business and we are always looking for new additions to our dynamic team. If you are a motivated individual with the desire to succeed within the debt collection industry, a career with Guildways would be perfect for you, and in return, you can expect to receive:

• Continued professional development and full training
• A generous holiday allowance
• A pension scheme
• Death in service scheme
• A yearly appraisal and salary review
• Ample free parking on-site in Guildford, a short drive from the town centre
• A full hour for lunch where you can take a walk by the River Wey, just 30 seconds from the offices, or pop into Guildford or Godalming for a spot of shopping
• Help yourself to tea, coffee, fruit and biscuits throughout your day at work
• Regular staff events including a Christmas and Summer Party meal out

A Debt Recovery and Collections Assistant is full time, salaried role requires you to collect client’s debt through correspondence and telephone calls. You will be working in a professional and established business, not in a call centre environment.

Tasks will include chasing debts by way of correspondence, referring cases to overseas agents and assistance in research

Previous experience of either debt recovery, collections, credit control or experience of the legal process of debt recovery would be beneficial but not essential, as training will be provided.

Key Areas:

• Telephone reception
• Accurate entering and processing of new cases and sending letters/emails to agreed client service levels
• Scanning, photocopying and filing
• Assisting with postal duties including packing and franking outgoing post
• Processing electronic client instructions received via website
• Preparing spreadsheets for BACS payments on a weekly basis
• Respon­si­ble for the daily tasks related to col­lec­tion efforts for a port­fo­lio of client accounts primarily chasing debtors by phone and letter.
• Be able to com­mu­ni­cate with debtors in a clear and pro­fes­sional manner.
• Negotiate payment terms with debtors where appropriate.
• Have good research skills using resources and tenacity to achieve a thor­ough under­stand­ing of the debtor.
• Actively pur­sue knowl­edge of skills and tools to be used in all collection efforts.
• To liaise with client contacts, build and develop relationships by providing a quality service.
• Provide reports and analysis as required.
• To input solutions to maximise opportunity.

Com­mu­ni­cate and sup­port the department Managers col­lec­tion goals.

Key Responsibilities:

• Answering and directing calls, with incoming calls being answered within 3 rings
• Ensuring that all requests to send letters received late on the previous day and before 2pm on the present day are issued, printed and packed
• Filing/scanning of post and other documents
• Dealing with debtor calls where possible and recording these in Lovetts’ in-house software (Lovsys)
• Ensuring BACS payment requests are passed to accounts in time for processing
• Provide administrative support to all members of the team.

Qualities:

• Com­puter skills including Internet Explorer and all Microsoft Office programmes
• Excel­lent com­mu­ni­ca­tion & people skills (writ­ten, ver­bal and tele­phone)
• Target dri­ven
• Be able to multitask and handle several client accounts
• Basic under­stand­ing of debt recovery legal process
• Problem solver
• Initiative, motivation and focus
• Good knowledge of company products and services
• Per­sis­tent, assertive and com­pet­i­tive natured
• Good nego­ti­a­tion skills
• Pos­i­tive atti­tude
• Reli­able, depend­able and hon­est
• Ability to work unsupervised
• Strong work ethic.

Judgment and Decisions:

• Organisation of working day
• Decisions upon when the matter should be referred to other members of staff
• Identifying the needs of staff in the department and providing assistance to ensure its smooth running.

Please click on the APPLY button to send your CV and Cover Letter for this role.

NO AGENCIES – Any calls from recruitment agencies will result in permanent deselection from the recruitment process in the future.

Candidates with experience of: Debt Recovery Coordinator, Debt Recovery Specialist, Debt Advisor, Collections Advisor, Accounts Assistant, Financial Assistant, Accounts Administrator, Payment Processing, Accounts Receivable, Credit Control, Bookkeeper, Finance Clerk, Bookkeeping Assistant may also be considered for this role.