Leveraging New Technology for More Effective Communication Increases Collections
Getting in touch with a debtor is a top priority for any collector. Making the right-party contact can lead to faster debt recovery or a quicker payment arrangement.
Unfortunately, reaching a debtor can be a challenge, especially when contact information is limited or out-of-date. In some cases, the collector may only have limited ways of making contact. Such obstacles can dramatically reduce the chances of making right-party contact.
New Tools for More Effective Collection Outreach
To help collectors overcome these issues, MeridianLink Collect debt collection software now includes skip tracing and communication tools that create a more effective approach to communications and collections.
Collect’s new text messaging solution enables real-time text communication to a debtor’s cell phone. Through our partner, Solutions by Text, Collect enables text messages that can seamlessly include account details, contact information, and even a link to redirect the debtor to a payment portal to submit a payment. As a preferred contact method for most consumers, text is a tool that drives greater consumer engagement, leading to more dollars collected. Here’s why.
Consumer Preferences for SMS
- According to Jake Jeffries of Text Marketer, 98% of text messages are read within 3 minutes, with an average response time of 90 seconds
- RingCentral notes 78% of consumers want the ability to communicate with a business via text
- 75% of adults prefer offers sent via text according to Digital Marketing Magazine
Texting Gets Better Results
A six-month case study conducted by Solutions by Text showed that SMS collection efforts produced average payments of $212.71 at a cost of $3.26, for an ROI of 6424.8%.
- Emails Delivered 87.32%
- Texts Delivered 95.22%
- Emails Action Taken 3.09%
- Texts Action Take 7.66%
- Email Payments Made –0.0832%
- Text Payments Made 1.33%
Two-Way Communication
MeridianLink Collect can also receive incoming texts from the debtor. With two-way texting capability, collectors can have a complete conversation about the debtor’s account without having to ever leave Collect.
Here’s a breakdown of how a collector can use these communication tools in Collect to secure payment:
- The collector sends a text message to the debtor requesting payment on the account
- The debtor responds and agrees to set up a payment plan
- The collector responds with a follow-up text message and advises that they’ll be sending an agreement via debtor’s email address
- The collector generates the payment plan document in Collect and sends for e-signature via debtor’s email account on file
- The debtor receives the agreement and e-signs the document to complete the process
- Finally, the collector follows-up with a phone call to confirm details of the plan with the debtor
This entire process can be handled directly through Collect and without the need to leave the system.
Tackling Contact Data
What if the contact information on file is out-of-date and no longer valid? MeridianLink Collect can also help in this situation. Collect offers integration into a variety of skip tracing vendors, from Experian to LexisNexis. Using one or more skip tracing vendor integrations may lead to securing new numbers, physical addresses, and email addresses that may be used to make right-party contact with a debtor. When you couple the powerful skip tracing integrations with Collect’s various communication tools, reaching debtors is a much easier process.
SMS, skip tracing and e-signature are features that require vendor contracting prior to usage in Collect.
Get Started Today
To learn more about a better system for reaching debtors, or to add these tools to your system, contact one of our debt collection experts today.
