A Day in the Life of… An Income Recovery Manager

Our specialist Income Team has colleagues based across our operating area. Within the team, as well as the Head of Service, there are four Income Recovery Managers, Former Tenant Advisors, Income Recovery Advisors, Income Recovery Officers, and Money Advisors.

Lizzie Spencer is one of our Income Recovery Managers. She joined the Group in May 2021 and manages 11 Income Recovery Advisors.

In her spare time, Lizzie enjoys listening to podcasts, practicing yoga, going out for meals, and spending time with her friends and family. Here’s what a typical day in Lizzie’s role looks like…

9am – After dropping my two boys off at school, I’m back at home, cuppa in hand, logging onto the system.

The first thing I do is log onto Puzzel. This is our telephone system that my team need to be logged into to make and receive calls.

The advisors are responsible for answering inbound calls and dealing with customer enquiries relating to their rent account. They deal with around 600 incoming calls per week, so it’s important to ensure that we have enough team members available to handle these calls efficiently and promptly.

Our telephone lines are open from 9am until 5pm, so it’s a quick check to make sure the team is ready to go for the first calls.

I respond to any urgent emails and queries from my colleagues or team members.

11am – I collate my team's performance stats from the previous week, including how many RentSense cases have been completed. This is shared with my team so they can monitor their progress.

RentSense is our debt management system. We use this to identify accounts that have fallen into rent arrears. We contact customers to collectively find solutions, ultimately to prevent their account from escalating to enforcement action.

Where this has been unsuccessful, we proceed to the next stage within the arrears recovery process.

12pm – I have some one-to-ones this week, so I start to work on some prep. This includes auditing accounts and listening to telephone calls.

During one-to-ones we discuss what went well with these examples and identify if there are any development opportunities.

1pm – Time to stop for lunch - I usually end up doing a spot of cleaning on my lunch break, whilst tucking into a cheese and pickle sandwich, yum!

2pm – I’ve got a catch-up with the Income Management Team. We share any team updates and plan a clear strategy to deal with any ongoing challenges.

Today’s hot topic is the rent review. Every April, rents are reviewed in line with inflation, and we need to put a plan in place to deal with the increase in work this will generate.

3pm – I check Rant and Rave, investigating any low scores.

Following a call with our Income Team, customers use Rant and Rave to rate their satisfaction with how the call was handled. I listen to the call and respond as appropriate.

Our customer satisfaction rate usually sits at around 90 percent, which is no mean feat when we can be having quite challenging conversations around rent arrears.

4pm – I have a couple of outstanding tasks that need a manager’s approval. These often include balance transfers or a rent refund.

I check that they’re all correct before approving and forwarding them on to our finance department.

5.15pm – Time to log off! It’s another busy day tomorrow - my calendar is looking full, but I wouldn’t want it any other way!