Your debt collection agency or accounts receivable (AR) department’s top priority should be collecting as many payments as possible.
But the way people communicate is different than it was even a decade ago.
Modernize your AR staff and improve customer engagement tactics to keep up with customer expectations—email, SMS and online payments.
Is your customer engagement strategy in line with this goal?
Top Customer Engagement Strategies
Most companies have shifted from phone and mail toward primarily online, email, and SMS channels to better manage payment collection efforts.
Monitor which customers are engaged in paying overdue balances by tracking through digital channels.
What customer engagement strategies and channels should agents use to make sure people see, interact with, and respond to payment requests?
Email is one of the most popular and effective methods of customer communication.
Companies that don’t want to modernize all at once should start here, using email payment request workflows as a core customer engagement strategy.
Sending email payment requests will:
- Improve customer engagement: Customers are more likely to open and respond to an email payment request than a paper statement or reminder phone call.
- Save money: Email is cheaper than paying for paper, postage, and letter vendors.
- Allow tracking: Unlike a paper billing statement, you can track an email. Know if your messages were delivered, opened, and completed.
TEXT MESSAGE
Text messaging is becoming more popular for business-to-customer interactions. Like email, text payment requests are less expensive than mail and easy to track.
Many people open and respond to text messages in real time, making them a fast, reliable way to collect payments.
ONLINE PAYMENT PORTALS
Customers with an overdue balance might feel embarrassed, or simply not have time to call in during office hours for help from an agent.
A successful customer engagement strategy will include a self-serve option, so you can make paying easier for every type of customer. Include:
- Credit card and ACH payment options
- Self-serve recurring payment schedules
- Custom branding to build trust and credibility
WEB CHAT
Collectors or AR departments that offer web chat for customer service can use this channel for web chat payments too.
Customers that want to speak to an agent about their bill should be able to pay live, whether they call in or chat with someone for help.
That means a collector or agent can direct a customer to a payment portal and stay on the chat to verify the payment went through.
TRADITIONAL MAIL
Some customers and businesses still rely on mail to communicate with at least some of their customer base.
Especially for third party debt collectors, pivoting away from mail might require lots of internal work to make sure you’re following digital compliance rules.
But you can update your customer engagement strategies for mail to encourage higher response and payment rates here too.
Include a QR code payment link on the communications you mail out to make it easy for customers to pay online.
TELEPHONE
Most debt collectors or AR departments used to rely on manual phone call follow-ups to customers with delinquent accounts.
Now, outbound phone calls to request a payment are much less effective.
However, many agencies find that text or email payment requests are a useful way to boost your inbound calls from customers.
Your business might still rely on phone calls to facilitate customer payments.
You should create a hybrid workflow where customers can call in for help and still access a payment link (via email or text) live on the call. This way:
- Customers get the customer service they need.
- Agents can verify a payment went through before hanging up.
- Customers can securely enter their own payment data, reducing PCI compliance scope.
Improving Customer Engagement With PDCflow
For teams that collect delinquent or late payments, it can be hard to have a successful customer engagement strategy with mail and telephone calls alone.
PDCflow’s esignature, document, payment, and communication tools are a flexible, cost-effective way to update your collection process.
Digital Document Delivery, Payments, and Messaging
Many of PDCflow’s customers have pivoted to sending email or text messages for all of the important documents and notices customers need.
For debt collection, this can even include compliance documents, like a debt collection Model Validation Notice.
Increase response rates—even on the first contact—with these best practices:
- Use professional messages to boost customer confidence. Proofread messages for grammatical and spelling errors.
- Use custom branding markers like a company logo and colors, and your company’s email domain to prove your identity.
- Include easy ways to pay, like a link to a secure payment portal or a QR code payment link.
- Offer a variety of payment channels and options, so people don’t run into a hurdle and give up.
- Honor opt-ins and opt-outs. Don’t send messages through a channel a customer hasn’t opted into, or has requested you stop sending from.
- Use Bulk Send for large lists of contacts. Send payment reminders to up to 5,000 recipients at once for a fast way to boost incoming payments.
Late or Delinquent Payment Phone Calls
Many collection agencies and AR departments are reluctant to get rid of phone calls altogether. This isn’t a bad thing.
The more channels you offer for customer outreach, the more you increase customer engagement overall.
During successful outbound calls, you need to make your time with customers count. If someone isn’t ready to pay right then, you need to get enough information to set you up for future customer engagement.
Update Contact and Demographic Information
Initial phone calls are often the only contact AR staff have with the payer during the payment process.
But these people may be loyal customers to your company or the original creditor. You need to make sure your department or other parties can contact them.
Always update essential demographic information and provide disclosures:
- Verify address
- Verify contact numbers
- Update consent to email or text
- Gather other consent (like E-Sign consent)
- Send any required disclosures or compliance notices
Get the full picture of customer nonpayment
There is always a reason a payment is seriously late or a debt has gone to collections.
A phone call with the customer is your best opportunity to understand the situation and tailor your customer engagement strategy to what will be best for them.
For some customers, the solution might be as simple as a flexible recurring payment plan. Build customer relationships by listening to their needs and coming up with the best solution for them.
Set Customers Up for Future Engagement
Ideally, one conversation would be all it takes to fully resolve an unpaid bill.
Unfortunately, many accounts need a full customer engagement strategy, not just one outreach.
There are ways to increase your likelihood of future customer engagement. All of these tactics rely on creating a positive, professional relationship with your consumer.
Automated Reminders
Not every customer will jump to pay the first time you send a request. They may not have the funds or the time to pay when you reach out.
That’s where software automations become essential. Don’t spend all day making manual phone calls to people who won’t pick up.
Use automated tools, like PDCflow, that can send an auto reminder before your payment request expires. This way, customers get another nudge to pay and your staff are free for more important tasks.
Recurring Payment Schedules
A recurring payment plan is one of the best ways to compromise on a large, unpaid balance.
If your company has lots of late payments or is a collection agency, recurring schedules keep customers engaged—even with large tickets or aged balances.
Set up payments to run in accordance with the customer’s payday or other preference, complete with automated reminders ahead of each payment and an auto receipt.
There is no extra work after setup for you or the customer, yet they still remain engaged in paying off their debt.
Customer Service Tactics
Quality customer service is just as important in debt collection and AR departments as it is in any other business or team.
To improve communications with consumers and keep them engaged, validate their concerns. Let people know you are here to help and tell them what you can do (financial aid, payment plans, etc.)
Addressing an unpaid bill is usually a stressful experience. Keep the conversation warm and create trust.
Use this positive customer experience to make plans for future engagement if people aren’t able to pay right now.
PDCflow Features: Build Your Customer Engagement Strategy
- Email: Send payment requests and documents to customers by email, for a non-intrusive way to nudge them toward payment.
- Text message: Improve customer engagement with texting—the channel most likely to prompt fast payments. We offer SMS as part of our software or a white-labeled texting solution directly from your system of record with our APIs.
- Custom branding: Customize the look and feel of your messages with your company’s own logo, brand colors, custom messages, and email domain for added credibility.
- Automated payment reminders: Send out auto reminders before a request expires. That way, customers get another nudge to pay and you save staff time on manual follow-ups.
- Automated Event Notifications: Sign up to be notified when your messages are opened and payments are complete. That way, staff or departments can easily track a workflow.
- Bulk Sends: Collect large amounts of overdue payments at one time. Send out payment reminders or settlement offers to up to 5,000 contacts at once with a simple spreadsheet upload. No extra work necessary to bring in a large amount of payments.
- Insights Report: Get an overview of your payment reminder campaigns with the PDCflow Insights Report. Or, drill down for specific information. This helps you create future customer engagement strategies based on real customer data.
- Integration options: PDCflow offers open APIs, so your company can integrate our functionality into your system of record with dedicated developer assistance and low-code and drop-in components. Or, ask about our software integration partnerships with select vendors.
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- ABOUT THE AUTHOR -
Hannah Huerta, Marketing Specialist
Hannah Huerta is a Marketing Specialist at PDCflow. She creates content for the accounts receivable and payment industry.
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