Collections departments have it hard. The high cost of communicating with delinquent customers vs. the law of diminishing returns that reduces the value of the recovery, it’s no wonder low value debt is “being written off as a cost of doing business” [1]. And customers are just not responding to traditional methods of collections anymore. 

Across the UK; Utility, Telco, Finance and Insurance collections departments are turning to the digital world in hopes of finding a suitable low cost channel to attain significant customer contact, drive faster payments and decrease operational costs. But, whilst there has been initial success with text messaging (SMS) and self service portals, sustained return on investment is tough to achieve. 

It’s all about segmenting and communicating the right message to the right customer at the right time – through the most appropriate channel.

Which channel FIRST?

In a recent channel preferences survey, ExactTarget found that email is almost seven times more popular for financial alerts over traditional direct mail and nearly four times more popular over text messaging.

An email benchmark report of Jan-Jun 2012 by Communicator Corp also highlighted the effectiveness of the email channel in various market sectors, naming the utility sector as the greatest benefactors of email. 

What do these recent independent studies tell us? That email is the customers' number one choice and so, it's time to start communicating via this preferred channel first. 

Power up email to drive your collections

The beauty of email is the simplicity of its arrival – isn’t it? Press send and it’s in the customer's inbox? Not quite. The real beauty of email is that it replicates the convenience of receiving a paper document, with the same possibility of personalisation - there are however a few hurdles to clear... 

In your search for the right partner to introduce eCollections, what should you look out for?

• Best in breed inbox penetration (not simply ‘delivered’ reports)
• In-email payment functionality which is device agnostic
• Security of confidential customer data
• Interactive eDocuments to encourage customer engagement and retention throughout the collections process

Email success for big brands

Not convinced yet? Some of our own clients have implemented the aforementioned collections strategies. Through Striata’s ‘push’ email communications they have experienced a significant increase in earlier payments and improved customer retention. All this, while enjoying the benefits of a low cost communication channel.

• Dell Collections: push email billing has resulted in 1.8% increase in payment rate on one down accounts as well as 4.3% improvement in collection calls per account
• GE Capital: 1.5% decrease in roll rate on 3 due accounts using the push email paperless delivery solution
• United Water: 43% of customers paying through the email bill paid in 0-3 days

Push your collections message

Place your customer at the center of the process, and push the right message at the right time via their channel of choice. 

Email is a powerful communication channel that delivers the ultimate in customer convenience, by enabling one-click payment from within the collection notice, while streamlining processes for businesses. It’s a low cost channel with significant rewards. 

We can help you get it right with email - get in touch!

References:
[1] Mike Smith, Feb 6, 2013, Beating bad debt: Yes, you can - An instalment of the Analytics Leadership Series

Sarah Appleby
striata.com