There can be no doubt the pandemic has altered the emotional make-up of society. Collectively, we are now much more aware of the suffering of others – and how could we not be after seeing lives turned upside down and businesses upended with no sense of rhyme or reason or equity.

The second year of the pandemic has seen more people in the UK slide further into debt and organisations need to recalibrate their response through empathetic collections.

You don’t have to be involved in collections to be aware that the last 18 months have affected the financial circumstances of a huge number of people.

Treating customers with empathy has been an increasingly important area of focus within the customer experience industry.

While technology offers many opportunities to deliver a more proactive and efficient customer experience, it’s the human interactions between brands and their customers that often make the difference.

Research done over the past few years has shown that having people of different genders, ethnicities, sexual orientations, ages and physical and mental abilities within your organisation is good for all sorts of things from innovation and creativity to engagement and retention.

As a market leader in debt management, we are witnessing first-hand the devastating financial impact Covid-19 is having on the personal finances of so many people.

Can debt really be considered good? And do we need more of it? At Tortoise Media’s recent ‘The Future of Money’ event I was invited to consider this alongside finance coach and author of Black Girl Finance, Selina Flavius, and the co-author of Angrynomics, Eric Lonergan.

Ricky Alfred, Capita Customer Management’s Head of Responsible Business, reflects on the need to support vulnerable customers - and how organisations, customer service agents and Capita can all make a difference.