How to monitor payments and conduct effective debt collection using tools provided by EasyCall? 

Fast and efficient debt collection is a challenge every company must face. Repeated unsuccessful attempts to contact creditors, along with the wasted work time of employees assigned to collect from unreliable clients, are common issues for many businesses. Invoices issued that are never paid on time by perpetually forgetful customers. So how can this problem be solved? First and foremost, by automating the customer contact process, starting with effective monitoring of incoming payments and payment deadlines for issued invoices. 

Automatic calls to debtors, rotating dialing numbers and the ability for the debtor to contact customer service to clarify payments are currently the standard for debt collection services in businesses. However, it is important to automate all of the above tasks into one process using modern communication tools such as SMS and Voice SMS with IVR (integrated interaction process). 

The solution based on automating individual elements of the traditional payment monitoring and early debt collection procedure is offered by EasyCall in the form of a Customer Contact Automation Platform. EasyCall’s automated contact with clients and debtors using SMS, VMS and rotating dialing numbers allows for the automation of the monitoring process and the preparation of a VoiceBOT that will carry out large-scale debt collection reaching tens of thousands of contacts daily.

The VoiceBot interaction scheme may include information about overdue payment, the option to listen to invoice details (issue date, amount, payment deadline) and direct connection to customer service, with the recipient of the message being identified and automatically accepting a repayment declaration.  

Payment Monitoring 

Usually, the entire process begins by informing clients about the issued invoice and payment deadline, which is best done by sending information via SMS. Data is retrieved from the accounting system, which we also advise automating. Another SMS is sent on the payment deadline and if payment is not made within the next three days, we proceed to soft debt collection, for which we use tools such as Voice SMS (voice message – VMS) built into the Customer Contact Automation Platform. 

The customer contact automation platform allows for the preparation of campaigns implementing complex schemes of automatic communication using voice messages with a built-in multi-element interaction process and additional linking them with SMS. VoiceBot interaction schemes are built using a “drag & drop” method with a clear campaign creator. 

The interaction scheme can be freely configured, adapted to the specifics and area of activity of the enterprise. The advantage of this solution is full control over the communication scenario with the debtor. Voice messages (VMS), which the debtor will listen to, can be uploaded as an mp3 file, in the form of a recorded announcement or will be read by speech synthesis in multiple languages. Thanks to the platform’s vast capabilities, we create any interaction scheme assigned to our VMS platform account, allowing us to configure communication with creditors according to needs and preferences, freely editing each element of the interaction tree. 

Soft Debt Collection Interaction Scheme 

After setting up an automatic voice announcement with information about the debt and its amount, the debtor can listen to the details of the overdue invoice (contact details and the amount of debt are taken from a CSV or TXT batch file) or choose to contact customer service to clarify the lack of payment. The choice of interaction mode is made by the debtor using the phone’s keypad (IVR menu). The debtor hearing the message about the debt amount can have it sent via email or SMS to a dedicated number. The debtor can also receive an SMS confirmation of the submitted declaration. 

Launching an automatic debt collection campaign requires creating an interaction scenario and specifying a number identifying the connection (presenting itself to debtors), uploading a file with contact data to clients and the amount of debt. Choosing a dialing number (from the available list) in each campaign on a rotation basis increases the chances of reaching creditors. The editable elements of the campaign also include the number of simultaneous calls (important in large campaigns), the number of attempts to reach (typically three attempts within one day) and the time interval between subsequent contacts to debtors who have not listened to the message. 

Campaign details can be continuously monitored on the campaign list (number to the debtor, result of the connection, date of connection and duration of interaction with the debtor) and its results exported to a CSV file. 

A detailed summary of the completed campaign is sent to the specified email address. It includes the phone number to the debtor, the number of the contact attempt with the debtor, and statuses regarding receipt and listening of the message, as well as choosing the option to connect with the customer service consultant. 

Monitoring and debt collection are available in simple price packages 

Combining SMS/VMS tools into one process is an extremely effective debt collection tool, allowing for defining several interaction paths with the debtor for each contact attempt. The use of voice messages (VMS) within the Customer Contact Automation Platform offers entirely new possibilities for interacting with the debtor, saving time on traditional and ineffective debt collection absorbing human resources. 

Excellent results are provided by a campaign informing about the approaching payment deadline, indicating the payment deadline for the invoice. Subsequent stages include debt collection actions and sending a voice message with the option for the debtor to listen to the details of the overdue invoice. Generating a campaign with VMS and IVR three times and the lack of reaction from the debtor (no payment for the invoice as well as no declaration of payment in the near future after contacting customer service) results in issuing a payment demand and possible entry into the debtor’s registry (after meeting formal requirements for such an entry). 

Payment monitoring and debt collection solutions are offered by EasyCall and available in packages tied to the number of interactions (clients/debtors) per month, starting at 200 PLN (BASIC), allowing for 200 SMS and 200 VMS per month. Simple VMS interaction schemes with IVR (two to three nodes of the interaction tree) are available in the GOLD package from 599 PLN per month, including 1000 interactions per month.  

More information on the Automatic Debt Collection page. 

Complex automatic interaction schemes, e.g., with the possibility of automatically accepting a declaration of debt repayment and exchanging data with external systems are only available in the ENTERPRICE plan (from 2999 PLN per month). 

Our Case study dedicated to the implementation of effective debt collection can be downloaded on the Automatic Debt Collection page.