How Oplo delivered brilliant customer communication and flexible contact strategies with Financial Cloud CRM

The Challenge

Prior to implementing Financial Cloud solutions for customer communication and contact management, Oplo managed collections and customer engagement on disconnected legacy systems, that the business needs had outgrown. The existing solution had been over-configured and stretched so far that performance speeds were causing resource inefficiencies and instability, creating service disruptions. 30-second to 3-minute lags were the norm when user were live on calls with customers.  

Additionally, the existing system didn’t provide internal IT teams – those attuned to the needs of the business – with the ability to configure their own contact strategy solutions and workflows. Dependencies on third-party providers meant complex change management processes that were needlessly slow. These challenges were at odds with the businesses’ desire to provide brilliant customer services, innovative products and flexible financial services.

The existing platform offered poor BI and MI reporting to teams across the business too. Oplo needed a single source of the truth with real-time updates and rich analysis across all customer touchpoints.

Ultimately, the system was incompatible with the future goals of the business as a people-focused, digitally-first financial services provider. 

The Client

Oplo is a leading consumer lender, committed to democratising personal borrowing in the UK. A tech-first financial services company, Oplo combine technology and tradition to provide smart, personalised digital lending with a brilliant customer experience. 

The business launched in 2009, with the vision to create a ‘financially fair’ way to borrow with pioneering products and services. Since then, Oplo has led the charge in personal loans, home loans and car finance that helped thousands of consumers get more out of life. 

• Launched in 2009
• Over £250m in loans
• £350m in AUM
• Recently merged with UK’s first challenger bank
• Flexible lending option for 26m Brits
• 1m transactions processed 1.2m new applications

The Solution

Oplo engaged Financial Cloud to scope a solution that supported their customer collections and communications strategies.

After reviewing the finding of the report, Oplo selected Financial Cloud’s full suite of modules to retire legacy infrastructure and integrate it into third-party Sentinel software.

Migrating 15 years of historical customer data across to the new system was no easy feat. Assigning adequate project time for and realistic contingency allowed full data and operations migrations, testing of migrations, robust data sampling and UAT to take place end-to-end across just one weekend.

There was zero customer impact or system downtime. Financial Cloud was available 24/7 to resolve any bugs and avoid business impact. With zero data impact on the back side, all reporting was amended across one weekend. The solution has empowered business users and management across the organisation to deliver on the company’s vision and mission. Internal teams now have the technological capabilities to drive change internally, optimise robust workflows and automate customer contact journeys, with no dependencies on third-party vendors.

Business Outcome

Customer Contact

With the implementation of Financial Cloud, Oplo now has full end-to-end digital self-serve capabilities for their customer base of > 40,000, as well as a real-time single source of truth. Systems are unified across departments with collections service delivery operationalised for efficiency. Individual contract strategies for agreements have been realised, with ease of movement through the cycle for processing.

Agent Workflow and Compliance

Intuitive dashboards provide easy to navigate workspace for agents and robust controls for call handling in the form of the CallFlows. This has the additional benefit of accelerating the speed of orientation for new start agents.

The ability to display critical information on workflows and create trigger scripts helps agents deliver 100% compliant services and prevent misinformation. ID&V and data cleanse controls have improved audibility and quality assurance, ensuring that agents are fully compliant with data protection protocols.

Product and Operations

Elimination of disparate processes across personal lending, home loans and car finance, in favour of unified, shared processes provides consistent customer service and allows for continuous improvement across all three product teams.

Management and Reporting

In-dashboard approvals provide slick automation and rich reporting, replacing laborious email processes that were prone to human error. In addition, agreement trackability and audibility are built-in via timeline change tracking of activity like S&R codes and warning markers. Long-term arrangements can now be set and monitored, as well as an endless capacity to record and view customer data.

Additional capabilities include efficient workload monitoring, allocation and tracking, with the ability to monitor management teams’ SLA and work quality with ease.

Communications

Agent and customer can communicate in real-time within the system, eliminating reliance on manual email contact. Email reminders, compliance mail touchpoints, SMS payment links etc can be managed and automated within the platform and can be deployed at the touch of a button. These workflows reduce administration, eliminate human error and data loss, and manage compliance protocols and audibility. Additional benefits include the elimination of double keying across platforms. Multiple avenues of communications are enabled with easy guided walkthrough “Wizards” for every config change.

Client Feedback

“Financial Cloud has drastically improved internal capabilities at Oplo. My team now have the ability to amend config at the drop of a hat and be a driving force for continuous improvement as the business grows, in collaboration with colleagues in collections. Our customer journeys are smoother thanks to our ability to shape the platform to our ever-expanding processes and create dashboard-based journeys that our agents love. What’s more, these high value business enhancements are finally visible and reportable to external partners, customers and shareholders, meaning we can celebrate successes along the way.”

Luke Holt, Product Owner

“Operationally, Financial Cloud has provided immeasurable benefits to our business and we couldn’t have asked for anything better with regards to the implementation. The new cloud capabilities have brought the power back to our internal teams, allowing them to deliver our vision for people-focused digital-first flexible consumer lending with brilliant customer service.”

Operations

Looking to the future

Oplo recently merged with Tandem Bank, one of the UK’s first challenger banks and shares a vision to power the potential of hard-working people across the UK by creating a fairer way to borrow. Around 26 million Britons are being left behind by traditional banks and lenders. Oplo and Tandem will help them access the money they need to achieve their goals in life. 

Founded in 2014, Tandem offers banking services, personal loans, mortgages, and home improvement loans, and has become a leader in supporting green financial choices. Last year alone, Tandem provided customers with loans for home improvements that contributed to over 12,000 tonnes of CO2 reductions.

By joining forces, Oplo and Tandem are able to offer a wider range of products and their higher quality omnichannel digital-first services to more people than ever before. Together, as Tandem, they are building fairer and greener lending, for everyone.