Customer Collective

Thanks to the growth of the digital sector, Customer Collective services have become more relevant than ever. In the last six months alone, they’ve acquired two companies (Grave and Dignify). This success is not without its challenges: as the number of campaigns and projects increases, so does the need for more effective cost control. For Kjell Verschuren, Business Controller of all Customer Collective entities, it was high time to find a solution.

“Thanks to Soldo’s prepaid cards, we were able to better manage the expenses of each project on an individual basis in a very short time.”
– Kjell Verschuren, Group CFO, Customer Collective

The challenge: finding an alternative to credit cards and lack of financial understanding

Kjell Verschuren says more about the challenge his company faced: “In the past, we used our managers’ credit cards to finance campaign costs. You can manage small projects this way, but it quickly became a problem for long-term campaigns.”

He continues: “It was difficult for us to control exactly how much was spent on each client project as well as internal projects. Most of Customer Collective’s advertising campaigns are run on social media channels such as Facebook, LinkedIn and Instagram. To this end, cards are often used temporarily for the duration of a campaign.”

There was also the issue of computer licences: “We had so many licences that it became difficult to check how many licences we were paying for twice and whether we still needed them. Due to a lack of clarity in understanding our costs, it was also difficult to determine when a licence should be terminated,” says Kjell.

He also points out a recurring problem for his team: “We often had problems with traditional credit cards. For example, our HR department urgently needed new laptops, but the credit card turned out to be blocked because the limit had been reached. This could have been avoided if the department had a better view of its spending.”

“So, we had to urgently find an alternative solution,” says Kjell. “With other solutions, it was difficult to identify costs down to a personal level. We were looking for a business-friendly solution that would allow us to justify every expense. So we quickly turned to Soldo,” he says enthusiastically.

More efficient management of the advertising campaign budget

Kjell Verschuren remembers the first cooperation with Soldo very well:

“To my surprise, everything suddenly went very quickly and smoothly. We had the virtual cards within three days, whereas with other solutions we were told that it would take a fortnight. The speed of action contributed to our choice of Soldo.”

Thanks to our virtual payment cards, teams at Customer Collective were able to get to work quickly: “Thanks to Soldo’s prepaid cards, we were able to better manage the expenses of each project individually in a short time. First, an amount is agreed with the customer. This amount then serves as a spending limit. Need more? Then it is agreed with the client. In the past, this never happened, and the costs were charged to our credit card. With the Soldo app, we can inform the customer in time and change the limits.”

“Soldo has also helped us enormously to further professionalise our offering: large businesses often ask for a justification of their invoice. When customers ask for details, with Soldo we can easily provide statements for a specific card,” says Kjell Verschuren.

He also stresses the importance of this detailed activity report: “We have also given access to accountants so that they can view and add statements to the accounts at the end of the month.”

Thanks to the flexibility of Soldo payment cards, Customer Collective’s HR department was able to purchase new laptops despite the credit card block. Kjell Verschuren is positive about the solution: “HR was able to manage the purchase budget themselves.”

The problem of computer licenses has also been solved: “One card per license seemed excessive. We plan to link several licences for short-term projects to one card, so that the expenditure remains linked to the duration of the project.”

Each team is responsible for their expenses

According to Kjell Verschuren, the company’s team leaders now have much more personal responsibility and better visibility of their expenses. “We have agreed internally that all team leaders will have a user account to which they can link their entire team or individual team members.”

“For example, we recently created four virtual debit cards for the ‘A random act of kindness’ project. During the COVID-19 crisis, it was difficult to have dinner together or organise things as a team. We have now set a limit for each card which can be used up for each team at will. The advantage is that with Soldo payment cards people don’t need to ask permission: everything is in the team leaders’ hands. According to Kjell Verschuren, the initiative has been very well received in the company.

Kjell Verschuren concludes: “I am particularly pleased with the way our teams can manage and track their team costs with Soldo. It helps us to better tailor our campaigns to the client and allows our teams to be more flexible with their budgets.”