How to Implement Early Soft Debt Collection?

How should companies handle so-called forgetful clients who constantly fail to remember to pay their obligations on time? Effective payment monitoring and pre-collection tools from EasyCall. 

Recent data published by KRD in the report “The Statistical Pole’s Wallet” does not bring optimism to managers of companies waiting for payment of issued invoices, including subscription ones – we are simply forgetful. According to the KRD report, the most common reason for payment arrears is simply “forgetting about the obligation.” So, what should be done to effectively remind both your clients and contractors about upcoming payments and do it effectively enough to ensure that all possible actions have been taken to prompt clients to pay on time? 

EasyCall offers solutions that allow effective monitoring of timely payments by your clients. The mass SMS campaign platform and customer contact automation platform enable top-level payment monitoring, implementing an automatic monitoring and soft debt collection process at any time and scale using various tools such as SMS, voice messages (VMS), and email, even in combination. 

Using automated platforms is especially recommended when there is an accumulation of payment due dates and a large number of clients to be informed about it – automated actions will allow for better management of the team of employees or call center consultants, who can carry out their standard tasks. This accumulation of contacts to be made on a given day occurs in both large and small companies. 

A debt manager does not need to have the appropriate number of consultants or resources at any given time, as the platform will perform the planned actions automatically, regardless of how many cases are directed for handling on a given day. Data about upcoming due dates and unpaid invoices will automatically be sent to the platform, which will execute the pre-planned procedure. 

Implementing effective early soft debt collection is easier than you think! 

The EasyCall platform allows you to plan and carry out actions related to the process of reaching out to the client, regardless of the number of consultants available on a given day. It is sufficient to plan the target process within the platform. Additionally, managing campaigns guarantees that the platform will comprehensively execute the entire process to inform the client about the upcoming payment due date: 

• It will call the client as many times as the prepared process requires, 
• Connection attempts will be made at different times of the day and within specified hours, 
• If a call is not answered, a text message (SMS) and/or email will be sent, 
• Automatic voicemail detection will send an SMS about the payment contact attempt. 

The EasyCall contact automation platform allows the entire payment monitoring process to be conducted fully automatically (including the verification process according to your company’s accepted rules). 

Within the process, the client can: 

• Be informed about the payment due date, 
• Authorize to receive a specific message (e.g., using a PESEL number), 
• Switch from a voice message to a conversation with a consultant, 
• Make a payment declaration within a specified time, 
• Postpone the payment (if allowed), 
• Make the payment. 

Our experience and statistics suggest fully automating the reminder process for upcoming payment due dates (early soft debt collection) while directing call center consultants’ work to clients who have not met their previously declared payment deadlines. 

Over 2/3 of clients are willing to answer the phone when their obligation due date has not yet passed. In such cases, the conversation with the consultant usually involves providing the client with the obligation due date and amount information. 

It is much harder to reach the same client once the obligation due date has passed. 

Our clients, who have fully automated the payment due date reminder process, have observed a significant increase in the effectiveness of their actions at the stage of overdue payments. This is because they focused the work of call center consultants on this group of clients. 

By automating the first stage of the monitoring process, we additionally observed a significant decrease in situations where the client, during a conversation with the consultant, postponed the payment date (almost always to a later date), which translated into an increase in the effectiveness of accepted payment declarations in a given month. This is especially important for payment declarations due at the end of the month. 

Automation also allows for the execution of complex processes in later debt collection stages. 

An example of a fully automated late debt collection process is illustrated by the following points: 

1. The platform makes several call attempts during the day to the specified phone numbers of the debtor (there can be several numbers), 
2. If voicemail is detected, a pre-defined message about the contact attempt is played or an SMS is sent, 
3. If a live person answers the voice message, identity verification (DTMF) is performed (usually using name, surname, and birth date), 
4. After identity verification, the client receives information – speech synthesis – about the amount and due date of the payment, 
5. An automatic payment declaration via IVR or a transfer to a call center consultant is possible, 
6. Additionally, at any point during the call, transfer to a consultant is possible by pressing any key. 

At any stage of the process, if the phone call attempt is unsuccessful, a text message in the form of an SMS or email with the amount and due date can be sent to the client. 

Furthermore, with clear statistics, you can easily assess the effectiveness of the debt monitoring process implemented in your company. 

What do you gain by using the EasyCall automation platform in the monitoring process? 

1. Maximize the efficiency of call center consultants – they focus on processes where human contact is necessary to obtain debt repayment, 
2. Optimize actions and improve the effectiveness of the debt monitoring process at the stage of overdue payments, 
3. If a conversation cannot be completed, you are sure to provide the client with information about the obligation by sending them an SMS or email. 

Our case study on effective debt collection can be downloaded from the Automatic Debt Collection page.