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The Coronavirus outbreak has presented a challenging time for us all and we’ve been busy supporting the influx of clients who’ve turned to us after being financially affected by the pandemic – and, sadly, we don’t expect this to end anytime soon.

The pandemic has highlighted the need to pull together even more, and we’ve been working with all our referral partners to ensure their clients are able to access free and confidential debt advice, when they need it.

Our referral partners are intrinsic to the work we do by helping us to reach a wide array of clients in need – including those with specific needs and vulnerabilities.

Creating partnerships has meant that those most in need are able to receive tailored support, which is often at a time of crisis.

We’ve placed a huge focus on ensuring our valuable referral partners are fully-equipped to prepare for the increased – and increasing – amounts of people needing debt advice post-pandemic.

The benefits of being a PayPlan referral partner

Apart from being able to offer a wider package of support to clients, there are many additional benefits to being a PayPlan referral partner:

1. Access to our Referral Hub

All referral partners have access to our Referral Hub, which provides a quick, simple and secure way to manage debt advice referrals, and has the ability to:

  • Refer clients for either a specific solution or general advice

  • Attach documents to the referral (such as a copy of a financial statement) which helps to improve processes by reducing work duplication

  • Inform us of your client’s contact preferences

Making referrals to PayPlan helps significantly in reducing the stress a client may be experiencing at the point of coming to you for advice and provides them with a clear and supportive avenue to get debt help.

If you’re an existing referral partner and you’d like a quick demo, please email partnershipsupport@payplan.com.

2. Referral outcome feedback

We appreciate it’s important for you to understand what happens when you refer a client to PayPlan for debt help.  That’s why we’re able to provide you with regular outcome feedback so you know what we’re doing to support a client every step of the way.

3. Training and Continuous Professional Development

We provide free training to support our referral partners’ teams on the following subjects:

  • Vulnerability

  • Domestic abuse

  • Debt advice – including sessions on Debt Management Plans (DMPs) and Individual Voluntary Arrangements (IVAs).

Recently, we delivered training to over 2,000 people! We’ve already received some excellent feedback – particularly on how the training has helped people find the right debt solution for each client, depending on their circumstances.

4. Warm handover priority hotkey

We appreciate time is precious so all PayPlan referral partners are given access to our Priority Hotkey phoneline. This is especially beneficial if the client needs help there and then – either in person or over the phone – and needs to be transferred to us for debt advice.

5. Signposting

Perhaps clients just want to understand a little more about how we can help, in which case we provide our referral partners with both digital or hard copies of our Client Leaflet to share with their teams.

6. Awareness sessions

For both established and new team members, we can provide a welcome or refresher call to introduce ourselves and explain more about what we do at PayPlan. This call will provide a full overview of our services, including the specialist support we offer to self-employed clients, the various referral options and a demo of the Referral Hub itself – all carried out over Zoom.

Plus, all our advisers are trained in supporting vulnerable clients, so you can be rest assured they’ll be looked after throughout their journey with us.

Next steps

Whether you’re interested in setting up a referral partnership with us, or you’re looking to refine your existing PayPlan referral partnership, we’re here to help, whenever you need us.

If you’re already one of our referral partners, we’d like to thank you for the way you’ve been helping your customers navigate through the challenges thrown up by the pandemic. As the number of people seeking debt advice increases – and we move into the ‘new normal’ – we’d like to remind you we’re here to support your clients by make sure those in need receive appropriate and effective debt advice.  

For more information, please contact partnershipsupport@payplan.com.