Taking the lead from the FCA’s requirement that all customers are treated fairly, we’ve recently designed a new Choices of Funding process to help retailers ensure they are presenting all repayment options to customers equally and compliantly.
The new process includes a ‘form’ which lists all the finance options (cash/self-funding, interest free, buy now-pay later and interest bearing) and sets out the key financial information including: interest rates, term, monthly repayments. It allows customers to make a quick and easy direct comparison, before choosing the right funding option for them.
The customer then signs to say they’ve seen and understood all the finance options available, prior to the salesperson completing the pre-contract information. This gives retailers a full audit trail and provides supporting evidence of compliance.
Better customer service, satisfy compliance & increase credit sales
The new process also removes the risk of salespeople choosing which finance products to tell customers about or making assumptions about which finance products they think customers will prefer. It prompts them to go through all the options.
There’s also been an unexpected but welcome benefit for retailers who have introduce the new process. Wayne Hart, Sales Director at Lancashire Double Glazing, said: “We decided to introduce the Choices of Funding form at LDG to ensure we conformed to the Financial Conduct Authority.
“The impact has been great, as all the forms come back to me if we sell or not, this tells me my reps are talking about finance and the affordability with all the customers. This has increased the finance sales in a big way.”
A flexible process that works for all retailers
The Choices of Funding process has been designed to fit in with all business practices – it’s available as a simple form (ideal for carbonating so you can retain copies for your records), as an MSExcel spreadsheet (that can complete calculations and also be printed) or as an app for tablets.
To find out more about using the Choices of Funding process, contact Colin Macpherson on 0845 120 6666