Many important aspects go into choosing payment collection software for your debt collection agency. Thinking about everything you must consider can be daunting.
When examining your payment collection software, start with these four areas to decide if it’s doing all it can for your agency.
1. Security
With the increase in data breaches in recent years, cyber security is a huge concern for businesses and consumers.
You need to know how your payment collection software functions so you can understand your security and compliance responsibilities.
Examine any payment collection software you’re considering for essential security features, functionality, and compliance certifications like:
Automated compliance
Compliance is a big part of life as a collection agency owner or manager. Find out what types of automation your payment collection software offers that will fulfill your compliance needs.
For instance, can you send, collect and store digital payment authorizations for Electronic Fund Transfers (EFTs) that fulfill Regulation E requirements?
HIPAA Compliance
Compliance with Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) ensures document security for invoices or paperwork you send for payment collections.
Protect Personally Identifiable Information by sending your statements from a HIPAA compliant payment collection software, like PDCflow.
PCI Compliance
Which Payment Card Industry (PCI) Self-Assessment Questionnaire (SAQ) is your company required to complete to take credit card payments?
If it’s more than a 10 minute time commitment each year, you’re doing more work than you need to. For the easiest route to PCI compliance, pick a Level 1 compliant payment collection software that stores credit card information on your behalf.
A software company with a commitment to PCI compliance makes good business sense for other reasons too.
When marketing to new clients, highlight these security features to gain new accounts and grow your business.
Secure payment data storage
With PDCflow’s Secure Entry Overlay, your collection agency can take credit card payments without having to store or transmit sensitive card data through your system.
This limits your PCI compliance burden and simplifies data storage and security concerns during payment collection.
PDCflow also tokenizes and encrypts information in transit and at rest, so you can rest assured that your consumer’s payments are secure.
2. Automation
Payment collection software is intended to make debt collection easier. Your collection agency’s payment collections should be as convenient as possible—for both consumers and your agents.
One of the easiest ways to simplify is by automating workflows anywhere you can. Here are some of PDCflow’s automated features that improve your agency’s payment collections:
- Bulk Sends: Send up to 5,000 payment requests, settlement letters, etc., in just one workflow.
- Automated reminders: Set up an automated reminder when you create a request, and consumers will receive an extra nudge before the message expires.
- Event notifications: Know when your payment collection request was opened and completed, or get a notification when it has failed so you can take action.
- Automated receipts: Follow EFT compliance by sending automated receipts.
Explore PDCflow self-guided tours
3. Flexibility
Not everyone uses the same payment channel or works the same hours. It’s important to offer self-service options to consumers who work during business hours or prefer handling their payments without speaking to a representative.
Online payment portals should be available and you should offer email and SMS opt-ins for people who want to pay via mobile device.
During office hours, these channels are also a great way to divert easy consumer payments, leaving employees open to handle more complex tasks.
Flexibility is also a necessity in workflow setups, and other admin settings within your payment collection software. PDCflow offers a variety of flexible options:
- Credit card and ACH payment collection options
- Online payment portals
- QR code payment links
- Email and SMS payment requests, document delivery, etc.
- Custom branding (your company logo, messaging, and email domain)
- Restrict staff access to templates and reports by group or location
- Create global settings for your recurring payments, so you control schedule lengths and minimum payment amounts.
4. Customer Support
Payment collections can get complicated.
If your staff isn’t familiar with the behind-the-scenes of credit card payment processing or they need help understanding ACH return codes and credit card declines, it’s nice to have support.
PDCflow’s award-winning customer support is available by phone or support ticket, and we maintain a comprehensive Help Center so you can get the most out of your software.
Part of good support also means a reliable payment collection management software that you trust will work consistently.
Pick a dependable company like PDCflow with dedicated IT staff for security, compliance, and minimal downtime.
Take a look at your payment collection software’s customer service operations. Do they offer what you need?
- Live support: Some questions are just easiest to ask over the phone. Can you reach a real person during business hours when you need to? If the support center is busy, do your calls get returned promptly?
- Self-help and troubleshooting: If you like to solve issues yourself, are there Help Center resources available for you to access?
- Support tickets: Not everyone enjoys (or has time for) a phone call. Can you get customer support through other avenues such as support tickets?
In the end, you want a software Customer Success team like PDCflow, that sticks with you from onboarding throughout your relationship with your vendor.
They should be offering more than mandatory service. Your support team should be rooting for your success.
Payment Collection Software as a Differentiator
The technologies you use to run your business are a big draw to clients while marketing your debt collection agency.
Many clients want to work with a third party collector that uses consumer-friendly digital debt collection tactics, like email or SMS communication, and custom branded requests.
Those who favor efficiency with their digital communication tools (like bulk sends) also find themselves in high demand, with better recovery results to stand behind. Show that your agency is up-to-date with the latest tech and tactics.
Stay competitive by using payment collection software that offers you reliable, secure communications and online payments—and the support and security features you need behind the scenes.
To learn more about how PDCflow’s solutions can increase your revenue and simplify payment collections, schedule a demo today.