Business Communication - Group 1 Proposal

Tô Thùy An - 11180038
Phạm Lan Anh - 11180425
Nguyễn Ngọc Linh Chi - 11180774
Lê Thùy Dương - 11186187
Nguyễn Đức Hải - 11181435

Company: FE credit - a company providing unsecured consumer loans

Topic 1. Telesales agents provide unclear information to customers:

Problem: FEcredit telesales agents do not provide customers clear information about the fees
along with the loan amounts. Those fees confuse customers when they rise significantly.
However, when customers complain, telesales agents do not directly settle those complaints for
the customer but transfer to the third party causing the delay. Customers become bound to the
responsibility even though they have no request for lending money. As a result, more and more
customers do not want to get in contract with FE Credit because they think they are cheated to
get money. They begin to turn away from the company and the image of the company becomes
worse.
Example: https://www.facebook.com/iquangnam/posts/3016622041691332
Even though the customer said that she was no longer asking to lend money, the telesales agent
sent money to her debit account. When the customer requested to transfer to her FE Credit
account, she was told to work with the third party (Dien May Xanh or The Gioi Di Dong
stores). At the third party's place, she realized that her FE Credit Account was activated and
begun to calculate interest rate, plus, she had to pay the insurance fee (almost 3 million dong).
Many people shared their terrible experiences with telesales agents in the comment section.
Reason: Our group decided to choose this problem because the unsecured credit loan is a very
sensitive issue in society, many forms of sophisticated cunning scams make borrowers fall into
miserable situations. The unethical behavior (demonstrated in the example above) also results
in the bad reputation of FEcredit in the credit market, losing costumers and market share. This
alarming problem should be realized and solved in order to raise people’s awareness, protect
them from being victims of unethical credit sales and provide an ethical lesson for all credit
companies. 
Analyze based on the knowledge from BC course: We have noticed that there are some
connections between the main background of this problem and the basic knowledge of this
course, which is how to conduct ethical business communication and deliver persuasive
messages. We expect that with this fundamental knowledge, we can figure out a sensible
solution for the problem, together with an insightful method to help improve the situation.
Lessons: 
 FE credit should focus on making clear forms of customer solicitation, contracts, and
provision when using services to avoid confusing customers resulting in psychological
fear, bad impression to users. 
  Training staff to have a positive attitude and ethical behavior when making offers to
customers, answering any customer’s questions to ensure that customers definitely
understand about services. 
 Ensuring the rights of customers will be received when using the service. 

Topic 2: The rude attitude of employees when collecting debt from customers
Problem: This is a systematic and long-term problem of FEcredit. In the past few years,
customers often complain that FE credit staff or representatives have aggressive and offensive
debt collection methods such as:
 making continuous phone calls to remind customers  
 using harsh words or insulting customers and references ( usually relatives, friends of
customers)
In the media, there are many articles, blogs and Facebook posts criticizing FEcredit's
unprofessional working attitude. Consequently, FEcredit’s reputation in the financial loan
market is damaged and many people decide to boycott the company. Therefore, FEcredit is
likely to lose market share and its leading position in the financial loan market to other
companies such as Homecredit, F88, …
Example: A customer of FE Credit expressed that he was repeatedly called to remind him of
his debt, regardless of the day and night. Even though it was just one day late, the staff still
insulted him as if he was trying to avoid a billion VND in debt. This customer decided to never
use FECredit's service again and advised friends and family to do the same.
Other examples may be found here: http://vnfinance.vn/tai-chinh-ngan-hang/khach-hang-cua-
fe-credit-vay-mot-lan-va-ton-toi-gia_t114c10n7063
Reason: Fe credit is a “famous” financial company with a rude debt collecting style and a
sophisticated loan scheme. We analyze this situation above to be more aware of this problem
and have a reasonable solution.  Before taking out a loan, borrowers have to be sure to find out
the lenders (banks, creditors) which have a good reputation and the legal terms are about
interest rates, loan insurance, payment terms, and especially debt collection methods. Having
relevant knowledge will make it easier to choose a suitable lender when necessary.
Analyze based on the knowledge from BC course: We anticipate that the knowledge in
Chapter 9 about delivering persuasive messages and Chapter 2 about team development and
etiquette would be usable for the analysis of this issue, as well as for the recommendation of
some suitable solutions.
Lessons:
 In case of customers still have not paid enough money after the due date, FEcredit should
protect their image by only using legal debt collection methods with customers and filing
lawsuits against them if necessary
 FEcredit definitely should avoid illegal methods such as insulting customers, hiring
gangsters to threaten customers.  
 FEcredit should check customers' loan profiles more carefully to reduce possible bad debts.