The Australian Finance Industry Association (AFIA) announced ZeeFi is nominated for the 2022 Affie Awards in the Championing Customer & Community category. This prestigious award recognises a financial business that has the best education or financial literacy program or initiative that supports customers and communities.
We feel especially excited and privileged because we’re up against stiff competition. It acknowledges our team’s efforts and commitment to continuously improve our customers’ experiences and outcomes.
We’d like to take this opportunity to thank you – our loyal supporters – for your continued support of our fantastic service.
Our efforts in positively influencing customers and community outcomes
Traditionally, lending and payment collections are known for being inflexible and impersonal with an automated one-size-fits-all approach. Our experienced team flipped this to put people first. The aim is to service our customers through a ‘care’ approach by removing the tough collections methodologies often practised by other lenders.
Our people-first approach consists of the following:
- Responsible lending – We engage in dynamic lending reviews with each applicant to understand their ‘whole financial picture’ (not just their debt to us) to ensure our products are suited to their needs. In these sessions, we also discuss potential future impacts for the applicant to consider, so they can decide if the product is right for them.
- Customer Vulnerability Framework – We appreciate that not every hardship situation is the same, therefore we have a comprehensive Customer Vulnerability Framework that is designed to understand all aspects of a customer’s financial situation. We then provide a tailored financial hardship and customer vulnerability solution that supports the customer through their vulnerable situation, to ensure they can get back on their feet. We also provide education on how to manage engagements with other creditors and linking them to external resources, so that they have access to additional information needed. We then regularly check in with the customer to ensure the support we have provided is relevant to their changing situation.
- Educating students out of debt – As a responsible lender and experts in finance for the education sector, we strive to educate our customers on an array of credit and finance related topics. We regularly produce relevant content to educate both students and education partners. We also provide student information packs to help educate them about finance, including on the common issue of credit scores because many students aren’t sure what impacts these scores or how to improve them.
We will continue to pave the way in championing the people-first approach in the finance sector. Our customers, business partners and communities deserve it.
AFIA will announce the winner on Tuesday, 18 October at an awards ceremony following the 2022 AFIA Conference in Sydney. Wish us luck at the Affie’s!
With appreciation,
Adam Olding
ZeeFi CEO
