Awards and industry recognition

ALPHERA Financial Services was named ‘Best Company to Work for – Creditor’ at the Credit Strategy Credit Awards.

The company was commended for “it’s high company satisfaction rating as well as providing examples of both staff development and support.”

The ALPHERA takes pride in creating a positive, flexible and motivational working environment and workplace culture. This includes a biennial survey to gather feedback and in the most recent survey, ALPHERA achieved a far above average rating of 90.

As part of the BMW Group campus at Farnborough, ALPHERA employees can participate in employee-run Diversity, Equity and Inclusion network groups that cover a range of areas of interest, including physical ability, culture and ethnicity, gender, mental health, and LGBTQ+.

ALPHERA also assesses and develops employees’ mental wellbeing. Over the past year, the company has introduced 20 newly trained mental-health first aiders, with 80 now on site to offer confidential on-site counselling to support colleagues.

At the 2021 Women in Credit Awards, Sarah Partridge, Head of Sales and Development, received the silver award for ‘Colleague of the Year’.

Sarah is responsible for innovating and enhancing existing business processes, products and services to improve the experience of the ALPHERA customer, both from a B2B and B2C perspective.

With a passion for helping people, Sarah voluntarily established a coaching and wellbeing program to support her BMW Group colleagues with their mental and emotional health. Now an Internal Coach for the business, Sarah specialises in resilience, Neuro-linguistic programming, career coaching and cognitive behavioural coaching (CBC). Sarah provides this support voluntarily, in addition to her senior management position at ALPHERA.

ALPHERA was awarded the ‘Sustainability Award’ at the 2021 Car Finance Awards, hosted by Credit Strategy. The entry was recognised by judges for its ‘clear commitment to sustainability’ and its role in the UK’s transition to cleaner forms of mobility with the ‘Company Award for Sustainability’.

In 2020, ALPHERA introduced the motor finance industry’s first carbon offsetting programme for used hybrid and plug-in hybrid electric vehicle (PHEV) purchases – named ALPHERA Zero – which was commended by the judges as a ‘clear example of innovation’. ALPHERA Zero is a unique finance product that allows consumers to buy a used hybrid or PHEV vehicle and offset all its carbon emissions throughout their term of ownership at no cost to them.

ALPHERA has been named ‘Non-bank Owned Independent Finance Provider of the Year’ at the Motor Finance: Europe Awards 2020.

We were recognised for our innovative business practices and customer-focused initiatives at the finance industry event held virtually for the first time.

The judges commented on ALPHERA’S phenomenal growth over the past year, driven by our commitment to ensuring that the finance process is as smooth and accessible as possible.

In 2019, the business grew 120% and until Covid-19 hit the UK the business was on target to deliver 130% growth. Even during the UK’s ‘lockdown’ period, ALPHERA continued to trade at 60% of normal levels and, by the end of July 2020, the business had recovered to be back on track to achieve its original, pre-Covid growth projections for 2020. Proof that even during extremely challenging times, exceptional businesses powered by motivated, talented and skilled employees as well as true organisational customer centricity can still be very successful.

In 2019, ALPHERA won the ‘Best Service for Dealers’ awards at the 2019 Car Finance Awards. The successful entry detailed how launching an accreditation pathway for sales specialists improved standards and transparency, which took place in the same year of an 11% funding growth.

ALPHERA was recognised for launching the first-of-its-kind accreditation pathway for finance and insurance (F&I) sales specialists, developed in partnership with the Institute of the Motor Industry (IMI). The F&I accreditation pathway helps to establish consistently high standards in car finance sales after ALPHERA recognised a pressing need to develop better business and credit practices through educating sales specialists on how to deliver car finance products to customers in an informative, transparent way.

The judges commended how the scheme encourages more compliant sales behaviours, putting F&I sales specialists in a better position to educate their own customers on how different finance products work. This helps customers identify the most appropriate product based on their needs, empowering them to make an informed decision and renewing customer confidence in the car finance sales process.

ALPHERA was also recognised for its focus on training and development, with its incentive initiatives to encourage compliant sales processes and customer feedback. Instead of incentivising salespeople to maximise sales volumes, the initiative focuses on raising customer satisfaction in the finance sales process through the application of specialist skills and knowledge and FCA-compliant sales practices.

In 2019, ALPHERA Financial Services won the ‘Best New Product or Service’ award for its ‘F&I Accreditation Pathway’ at the annual AM Awards.

Chosen from five shortlisted companies, ALPHERA won the award for its strong track record in promoting finance and insurance (F&I) excellence, culminating in the 2018 launch of an accreditation scheme for F&I salespeople in the motor retail industry. The F&I Accreditation Pathway was developed in partnership with the Institute of the Motor Industry (IMI), and enables accredited sales specialists to better help customers make an informed decision about appropriate car finance.

The AM Awards judges stated: “ALPHERA is addressing a major challenge and a risk to the sector. In times of increased FCA scrutiny, allowing dealers to sell F&I without worry is commendable. Where there was previously no universal scheme to ensure high minimum standards regarding the sale of car F&I products, ALPHERA worked closely with the IMI and its partners to help sales professionals gain the industry-approved qualification.”

ALPHERA has been named ‘Non-bank Owned Independent Finance Provider of the Year’ at the Motor Finance: Europe Awards 2018.

The company was recognised for its innovative business practices and customer-focused initiatives at the finance industry event held in Berlin.

When announcing ALPHERA win, Jonathan Minter, Group Editor at Motor Finance Europe, said: “One of the strongest categories this year, judges nonetheless felt that ALPHERA really set itself apart with its focus on putting partnerships at the heart of everything it does. It has been rewarded with extremely strong growth rates. Instead of resting on its laurels, the company has continued to innovate, including working with institutes to promote dealer accreditation and launching incentive initiatives rewarding good customer outcomes.”

2017 was a milestone year for ALPHERA, as the company funded £1.2 billion in car finance for the first time, a 68% increase over 2016. 

While ALPHERA continues to increase its number of dealer partners – up 11% in 2017 – its strategic focus in 2018 remains securing organic, sustainable growth from existing relationships. ALPHERA sees the new F&I Accreditation as an opportunity for dealers to establish consistently high standards and renew customer confidence – ultimately leading to increased income.

ALPHERA Financial Services has won the ‘Non-Bank Owned Best Independent Lender’ award for the second year running at the 2018 Car Finance Awards, hosted by Credit Strategy.

ALPHERA was recognised for its new accreditation scheme, developed in partnership with the Institute of the Motoring Industry (IMI), for finance and insurance sales specialists. In seeking to improve industry standards, ALPHERA sees the IMI F&I Accreditation as a significant step towards establishing consistently high standards in the sale of finance products, helping dealers to improve customer satisfaction and confidence in the transaction process.

Commenting on the award win, Gerry Kouris, marketing manager at ALPHERA Financial Services, said: “We always encourage our partners and others in the industry to challenge us to do better, and this award shows we’re on the right track. We established a new accreditation scheme with the IMI to deliver the skills and knowledge needed to confidently qualify customers, as well as to provide a platform for self-regulation to support compliance, introducing shared core values across dealerships. We are thrilled to see that the industry endorses our vision of accreditation.”