Contact Center Technology to Help Collections Cut Costs

Along the lines of what I described in my recent posts, Collection Advisor Magazine's columnist Brian Cutler lists voice broadcasting (basically the same as outbound IVR) as one of the top three methods for cutting the cost of generating collections in this troubled economy. The article, "Cutting Costs of Collection Using Technology During Hard Times" is a PDF, so you'll be viewing it in a separate window.

Right Party Contact Podcast

I hosted my first podcast for The Evolving Contact Center. This episode (about 5 minutes total) is all about right party contact for the collections industry. I interviewed Rick Novak, a long-time contact center consultant, and he offers some great info about how companies use RPC as a strategy to collect more debt. He also talks about integration with Avaya PDS (predictive dialer) systems.

Proactive Customer Service

Here's an interesting idea for companies to notch-up customer service efforts using their existing call center investments: proactive customer service using outbound IVR. When you bring on a new customer account, send an automated outbound call with a pre-recorded "thank you" message, and give the customer a menu of options to further interact with your company. If one option is to speak with a customer service representative, the new customer can either inquire further about other products, answer survey questions, or even voice a complaint.

Along the same lines of

Outbound IVR delivers automated collections and Right Party Contact during economic slow-downs

Times may be tough for many businesses in the current economic downturn, but collections agencies are thriving as delinquencies no doubt increase. And as debt collectors mobilize to collect from their delinquent accounts, the competition will be keen. Smart collections agencies can gain the competitive edge if they automate the collections process and adopt a Right Party Contact strategy.

Naturally, collections companies attempt to collect debt from all their delinquent accounts. But a priority is placed on collecting from accounts with high balances, as opposed to smaller balance accounts that are less cost-effective to pursue. By using an outbound IVR to automate their recovery process, collectors can deliver a self-service option to lower priority accounts so that live agents can focus on the big fish.

Outbound IVR can deliver personalized and pre-recorded messages to delinquent contacts and offer a variety of self-service options including payment or promise to pay or to connect with a live operator.

And because the outbound IVR allows the call recipient to verify their identity, when they request connection with a live agent, the right party has been contacted and lends to significantly increased efficiency.