Salad Money Impact Report 22-23 WEB - Flipbook - Page 11
I purposefully
hired people
based on how
empathetic they
are and who care
about people.
And Devan’s team doesn’t only
help customers: “We get a lot of
incoming emails from people who
want to know more about why their
application has been rejected. For
example, it’s alarming to see how
many applicants have deep-seated
gambling issues, which we’re able to
spot because we use Open Banking.
fair decisions, so when someone
tells us they really need money,
and we know we can’t lend to
them because it would make their
circumstances worse, it can be very
di昀케cult. But ultimately we must and
do remember we are doing the kind
thing by not lending to someone in
that position.”
“If we’ve declined someone’s
application because of a pattern of
problem gambling, and our rejection
email has signposted them to
Gamcare, we can get emails telling
us they don’t think they gamble
much, or that everyone does it – yet
we can see there’s a huge problem
which we don’t want to fuel.”
With any applicant rejected by our
‘Crouton’ system able to appeal,
“we have the power to override
that automated decision. Every
potential customer has the option
to have a decision made about their
application by a human. We know
how much people value that, when
they can talk to another person who
is committed to understanding
whether it would be fair and right to
say ‘yes’ to the loan they’re asking
for, and we understand it comes
with great responsibility.”
This can also be harrowing to hear.
“I purposefully hired people based
on how empathetic they are and
who care about people who apply to
and borrow from us. Obviously that’s
good: we’re a social enterprise and
a responsible lender and we know
we can’t lend to every applicant.
But we are committed to making
2022-2023 Impact Report
Devan Fitzgerald,
Head of Customer Service.
Devan is enormously proud of her
team. “I enjoy showing o昀昀 about
what we do. We know we save our
customers money compared with
more expensive lenders. We’ve
helped people 昀椀nd hundreds of
pounds in bene昀椀ts they were entitled
to, distributed thousands of hardship
grants which have been a lifeline for
many applicants we couldn’t lend to,
and now we’re o昀昀ering NILS loans
too. I love reading the wonderful
Trustpilot reviews and emails from
people we’ve helped too.”
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