Imagine this – As an established debt-recovery agency, you have hundreds of debtors to reach out to before the end of the week and remind them about paying their dues. You have, say, 40 field agents ready to call these debtors. Which one of the options below do you think would be faster and more likely to help you connect with each debtor?
- A manual calling system that requires you to dial each 10-digit number and wait for the person to answer? Or,
- An automated system that dials numbers in the backend and automatically connects answered calls to any agent who is free?
Quite obviously, the second option simply eliminates a lot of unnecessary waiting time and will always be faster and allow your agents to cover more ground.
Automation is efficient, and there’s very little doubt that it substantially improves the debt collection process too.
But here arises a question – Just where do you start? Well, debt collection has traditionally been a “call-and-respond” kind of industry, so if there’s anything that you should start with, this is the lowest hanging fruit to go after.
In this article, we’ll cover everything you need to know about making the entire debt collection process automated, starting with the benefits. Hop on...
Call automation and scheduling
With an automated service, you will be able to define a scheduled duration of time during which your callers can make calls. No call will be initiated outside of these hours.
And how does that help exactly?
Well, in most countries, you have to maintain regulatory compliance for debt collection calls. As per the regulations, you can’t make calls outside certain hours, and these hours vary from one nation / geography to another.
Instead of having your callers check their watches before calling each debtor (and sometimes even converting the time to the time zone they are placing the call to), simply setting the customer calling hours is way more efficient.
Debtor Reporting and analysis
Using an automated debt collection software can provide you with a lot of valuable data and insights that you can use to make better business decisions.
But how?
An automated system will produce comprehensive reports of your debtor profiles with additional detailed metrics like the total number of calls made, calls picked up, an hourly breakdown of calls being answered, etc.
You can easily analyze these reports to understand what’s working and what’s not.
Empathetic Customer service
Unlike the very popular perception, debt collectors are not thugs that break down doors to take what they are owed. They are professionals who need to handle people (debtors) carefully, following the precise rules and regulations set by the laws of the land. Not complying with these practices is ground enough for multiple, and often lengthy lawsuits.
Therefore, customer service in the debt collection industry is just as essential as any other business, and debt-recovery automation can improve it.
How?
For instance, with an automated calling system, your callers will be more equipped with resources like a debt collection calling script, debtor data, and history, interaction history, etc. These resources help make their interactions more informed and to the point.
If callers know that a debtor has been reminded multiple times earlier to make the payment and hasn’t done it yet, sending yet another reminder may not work. They will then have to shift the interaction to gauge the ability of the debtor to pay back the debt and possibly negotiate a restructured payment plan, in-kind payment options (wherever possible), or a lower settlement amount.
Data import and export in multiple formats
This is again, an essential (yet overlooked!) feature in any automated debt-collection software. Agencies and their field agents should have the facility of importing (as well as exporting) debtor profiles into multiple file formats like “XLS”, “PDF” or “CSV”. The collection software should also have the facility to print these profiles directly from the tool.
Finally…
From the above, it can be easily deduced that automating debt collection streamlines clerical tasks and understands debtors enabling businesses to manage other demanding tasks. AI-powered automated solutions have the potential to completely redesign the way debt recovery takes place while significantly improving debtor / customer experience & business value.