SoundBite Offers Collections Advice

When the economy turns south, collections activity via contact centers heads north as debt load mounts. Yet because debtors have by definition limited resources, collectability is decreasing.

 
 
To stay in business, and not go the way of the individuals and firms they are calling, collections firms must adapt to the times, says Matt Edmunds, general manager for collections at SoundBite Communications by adopting new strategies and technologies.

Matt, who has more than a decade of experience with collections and financial services, has raised three common key issues and offers solutions:

 
 
Problem 1: Despite increased volume, collectability is down. How do I earn a profit with fewer people paying?

 
 
Solution: Leverage automation: Automated voice messaging (AVM) solutions can cost-effectively increase the efficiency of your agents and reduce the cost to collect.

 
 
Define and optimize your AVM strategy. AVM effectively weeds-out the non-willing and non-able payers, helping to increase agent productivity and revenue-per-agent/hour. The key is in optimizing your strategy. It’s beneficial to periodically launch AVM campaigns to complement your predictive dialer strategies. But you’ll reach new performance levels by leveraging modeling and best practices to fine-tune your AVM strategy and reach the right customers at the right time.

 
 
Don’t overlook agentless solutions. The effectiveness of agentless solutions and the growing acceptance of automation across the country and around the world are making ‘virtual collections’ solutions —including text messaging -- more viable. Agentless collection solutions also provide options for debtors to pay at their convenience. Focus your agentless solution on your low-balance, fresher or higher yield debt.

 
 
Smarter decision making in your contact strategy. Make your strategy more sophisticated yet still easy to implement and manage. Take time to invest in champion/challenger strategies to guide the way to superior results. Agencies must be sloping efforts and applying different strategies to different segments of accounts, even within the same portfolio. While many understand this strategy and intend to deploy it, few agencies truly segment accounts correctly and differentiate contact strategies consistently.

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