The Challenge: Navigating operational inefficiencies & legacy constraints
UK Search, a leading tracing and debt collection business in the UK, faced a range of operational and technological challenges that were impeding the business’s ambitious growth plans. The company’s reliance on a legacy payment provider resulted in delays to essential processes and restricted the breadth of payment options available to customers. With the aim of building on their customer service offering, UK Search’s focus shifted towards providing more flexible and convenient self-service and digital payment solutions.
Furthermore, the strategic goal of increasing operational efficiency and reducing costs was key to building a more scalable model for growth and managing pressures on margins. These issues highlighted the need for a comprehensive digital transformation, one that would enable more personalised digital customer journeys, better support for vulnerable customers, and seamless integration with the company’s core systems.
The Solution: Digital transformation and payment optimisation
Acquired.com and DebtStream have built a strong partnership over the past three years, leveraging their unified suite of products to provide an end-to-end digital solution for businesses in the debt management space.
To address UK Search’s specific challenges, Acquired.com and DebtStream worked in tandem to drive a programme of digital transformation and optimisation. Their aim was to help UK Search overcome its operational challenges and deliver measurable improvements in efficiency, payment success, and customer experience.
DebtStream’s Role
DebtStream introduced their self-service platform to empower UK Search to deliver data-driven, personalised customer journeys across its diverse portfolios and customer segments. This platform enabled customers to interact and resolve their accounts digitally, significantly enhancing engagement and customer outcomes.
DebtStream also implemented outbound secure messaging, replacing traditional letters with digital communications. This not only reduced communication costs but also improved the speed and effectiveness of customer outreach.
By working closely with UK Search’s core system provider, DebtStream ensured that all solutions were tightly integrated, allowing for real-time data exchange based on digital engagement. The approach taken to integration and rollout of the platform reduced internal technical and operational overheads, freeing up resources to focus on further innovation and customer support within the operation.
Martin O’Donnell, CPO & Co-founder, DebtStream said “By prioritising customer-centric digital solutions, we’ve helped UK Search to deliver a digital first approach, streamlining their operational overheads, unlocking new opportunities for growth, whilst most importantly driving better outcomes for customers. In an increasingly digital-first industry, UK Search is now in an excellent position to scale their operations going forwards.”
Acquired.com’s Role
Acquired.com complemented this digital transformation by optimising the payment experience for both UK Search and their customers. The introduction of Acquired.com’s proprietary Pay by Bank solution delivered a notable improvement in collection success rates, achieving a 97% authorisation success rate. By offering a broad range of payment methods, including cards and digital wallets, Acquired.com made it easier for UK Search customers to pay in the way that suited them best, driving higher engagement and satisfaction.
The deployment of Network Tokens resulted in an uplift in payment success rates within just one month, while also reducing declines related to lost or stolen cards, suspected fraud, and closed accounts. This not only streamlined their payment processes but also enhanced compliance by reducing fraud risks through advanced tokenisation.
AJ Davison, Head of Partnerships, Acquired.com commented “The value of providing alternative payment methods alongside cards cannot be underestimated. We’ve supported UK Search in achieving higher transaction success rates, improving operational efficiency, and creating a seamless, future-ready payment experience for their customers.”
The Result: An impressive operational improvement
The results of this collaborative transformation were significant. UK Search achieved substantial cost savings, eliminating over six months of call centre recruitment while maintaining volume growth. There was a marked shift towards digital engagement, with 33% of customer engagement now taking place in the DebtStream self-service platform, and 75% of digital payment plans requiring absolutely no agent interaction, demonstrating the effectiveness of the new digital journey.
Digital payment uptake increased to 70%, and over 50% of these transactions took place via alternative payment methods (Apple Pay, Google Pay & Pay by Bank) rather than card payments, reflecting the expanded choice available to customers. The optimised collections process led to improved margins, as failed payments were reduced and operational overheads minimised. The implementation of Network Tokens resulted in a 5% increase in payment authorisation rates in the first two months after implementation. Enhanced compliance and reduced fraud risk further strengthened the business’s position.
Most importantly, UK Search was able to scale its operations without the need for additional full-time employees, opening up new commercial opportunities such as white label and Business Process Outsourcing, leveraging the unique capabilities of the partnership between DebtStream and Acquired.com.
Gary Norris, Operational Director, UK Search said “Our partnership with DebtStream and Acquired.com has transformed the efficiency of multiple aspects of our operations, enabling us to deliver a more personalised, efficient customer journey while futureproofing our business for scalability.”
Interested to learn more about how Acquired.com and our partnerships can improve your payment processes? Get in touch with our team of payment experts.
