Credit, Collections & Insolvency News
Credit Connect’s hosted its second Online Collections Technology Think Tank 2.0 last week which saw collections strategies and the impact of the pandemic discussed by fourteen collections professionals from a variety of industry sectors.
The themes of business transformation, customer engagement, affordability, and open banking collections were discussed by panellists and Chair Vanessa Northam from StepChange. The insights from the event were recorded and now can be viewed by clicking on this link.
Over 270 collections professionals from banks, building societies, motor finance, utility firms, local authorities, telecoms, media, debt collection agencies, and fintechs were amongst the viewers across the four sessions.
Commenting on the event host Colin White Founding Director at Credit Connect said “It was great to see such a great mix of collections professional take part in the industry panel discussions supported by the viewer interactions responding to the survey polls and asking questions at the event.”
“We have had some great feedback from the attendees and fully intend to run this event every six months moving forward and also bring this alive further with a face to face networking version of the event when possible. We have already approached speakers the next instalment of the Think Tank series for the 2.1 edition of the series which will be screened in September.”
Commenting on the event panellist Peter Gent, Sales Director from Credit Resource Solutions said “It was a pleasure to be involved in the event. The use of technology to help the customer experience is vital as we move through the Pandemic and into the future. A really good insightful day.”
Whilst Paddy Gilling Solutions Consultant at Flexys Solutions said “I really enjoyed being part of an expert panel discussing customer engagement in 2021 and beyond. It’s clear that we are still scratching the surface of what can be achieved within collections and debt management. It was rewarding to hear the panel and the audience call for the design of new technologies and engagement channels to be fair and inclusive for all.”
Susan Rann, CEO of Paylink Solutions, said “It was great to be part of the Think Tank and discuss the role of Open Banking in the collections process with other people from across the industry.”
“The past year more than ever has put huge pressure on lenders to find better ways of managing large volumes of customers who have fallen into arrears – or are coming to the end of payment holidays. Finding ways of doing this digitally has played a huge part and should continue to play an important role.”
“Here at Paylink Solutions, we’re providing our clients with digital tools to enable customers to access a digital platform and provide all the data required to carry out affordability assessments in the quickest and easiest way – which ultimately leads to payment plans being agreed between consumers and lenders.”
“Across the numerous lenders using our different APP journeys, we see an average 60% uptake in customers consenting to pull their affordability data through the Open Banking part of our journey, and only a 3% drop off after that point.”
“Open Banking improves the speed and accuracy in the collection of affordability assessment data and allows agents on the phone to focus on providing the right outcomes to those customers who are more vulnerable and in need of further advice.”
The next Online Collections Technology Think Tank will take place on Thursday 16th September.
If you are interested in speaking or becoming a sponsor for the next event then call 01622 437014 or email events@credit-connect.co.uk for more information. More online events will be confirmed soon.
Responses to questions:
● What do you see as the single biggest change required in collections as we come out of COVID forbearance?
Melanie Chell, Shoosmiths: I think this will be the sheer volume of customers in financial difficulty who are unable to afford to maintain their credit and fall into arrears. I think the numbers of customers who will require debt advice and assistance will increase exponentially and so Lenders need to be well staffed and prepared for high volumes of arrears and therefore customer contact. This will involve development of automated journeys and also ensuring staff are well trained in recognising vulnerabilities and empowered under open mandates to offer flexible solutions for sustainable payment arrangements
Paddy Gilling, Flexys: The truth is we don’t yet know the full evolution of the pandemic. It’s likely there will be more disruption to come. Customers will expect sensitive, timely and fair consideration of their individual circumstances. To achieve that, collections teams need the ability to quickly and easily adapt to economic disruption, Government measures, business developments, regulatory guidance and customer requirements.
● With the level and drive of automation, what role do you see for the generations to come? Do you see wealth and knowledge divide and also do you see human batteries running automation?
Melanie Chell, Shoosmiths: Automation will be there to provide a way of removing the mundane repetitive tasks. Leaving future generations to work on the more complex, tricky elements and also the elements that will always need human interaction as we are fundamentally a social species and there is no room for a one size fits all approach. The expectations will be on a more tailored engagement with people using the automated suite of tools to provide information to maximise these interactions – and then you will have other side of the spectrum that will not want to deal with humans at all. Wouldn’t it be nice if the increased automation led to a different work/life balance?
Paddy Gilling, Flexys: The driving force behind collections technology should be to make things better for human beings. When it comes to knowledge, one solution is to actively onboard customers to digital services and ensure those services are inclusive by design. Some institutions already promote digital skills programmes to help non-digital customers benefit from the same speedy and convenient services that digital-natives enjoy. While this effort progresses, it is important that all channels remain open for those who need them. At Flexys, we champion the concept of Omni-Access, where customers benefit from the same excellent level of experience, regardless of their chosen channel of engagement.
● In collections, a customer has to pass security before any discussion can take place. We have screen popping technology and if we answered the phone with their name, there would be problems.
Paddy Gilling, Flexys: Security processes are always undertaken as the first step. After that, context-sensitive information can support agents to make sure that every engagement is relevant and productive. It’s important that agents are not overwhelmed with unnecessary, outdated or distracting information.
● What are your thoughts regarding Conversational AI vs Open Banking?
Susan Rann, Paylink Solutions: Conversational AI and Open Banking work well in isolation, however, when combined they are much more powerful. They work together perfectly to give customers confidence, set expectations and educate via the process.
Our team at Paylink Solutions is currently developing solutions for clients which combine the two functions at various stages of the collections process.
● How does working from home impact employees mentally and socially?
Rick Britt, CallMiner: Employees have been impacted both mentally and socially in a number of ways, one of the biggest issues we have noticed among our staff and customers employees, is the feeling of isolation. Particularly with contact centre agents who have previously been used to working with and amongst their peers and supervisors. Establishing and maintaining clear communications practices with employees has been crucial for us and our customers’ organisations to reduce this feeling of isolation and the overall impact on teams. Internal chat systems for employees are great, as are management monitoring tools to keep track of agent performance so that supervisors and team leaders can reach out proactively if agents performance starts to slip, highlighting that they may need support.
The other big impact on employees, particularly in contact centre roles, is the increase in customer vulnerability, and complexity in customer conversations. As a result, there has been and will continue to be, a need for employees to be equipped to handle these conversations managing customer relationships with sensitivity, flexibility, and emotional intelligence. Today, millions of people are dealing with the effects of physical and mental illness, bereavement and job loss. Employees that are having to deal with learning the skills required to deal with more challenging calls – while working from home, away from their teams and supervisors for support – can and has started to have a big impact on those employees’ mental health and own vulnerability status. It’s crucial that organisations equip their employees to deal with these scenarios and be prepared to offer support to those that are struggling.
● When investing in new technology, and with many companies offering a similar solution, what 3 USPs should a buyer be looking at?
Rick Britt, CallMiner: For AI Fuelled Conversation Analytics Technology: Ensure that you look for a provider that will offer your organisation support after your purchase, for the lifetime of your usage. A good provider will be upfront about what is possible and what’s not with the data you have available and will have a team full of professionals with lots of deployment experience to ensure that your implementation goes smoothly. They should also stick around to help and guide you to achieve your goals and objectives.
Look for a provider that can track and monitor customer behaviour across multiple channels, from the customer’s first interaction and throughout the business relationship. Because customer journey mapping doesn’t end with the purchase or when an issue is resolved, conversation analytics solutions can monitor and analyse customer behaviour through customer service interactions and beyond. For several reasons beyond the pandemic, customers no longer take a linear path to their product or service challenges. Rather, they engage with companies on multiple devices and across channels while pausing and resuming their journey along the way. The challenge is in identifying that a customer is on a single contiguous journey without channel boundaries, while at the same time delivering a personalised, contextual experience at each touchpoint.
Ensure you pick a provider that has good integration / API capabilities because insight from every call or conversation becomes more powerful when combined with your existing data, and the ability to customise the presentation or your customers intent, action and sentiment within corporate file formats and data warehouses makes it easy to create awareness, encourage innovation and make enterprise-wide business improvements.
● Can anybody provide an example of the cost benefits of business transformation and examples of where change has shown a short-term improvement relatively quickly?
Rick Britt, CallMiner: Besides being versatile, conversation analytics in particular is extremely cost effective. Users of this impactful technology are often times finding multiple opportunities within their environments to quickly gain a full return on investment (ROI) through a combination of improving productivity, reducing operational costs, and increasing revenue.
Organisations can reduce operating costs by using analytics to optimise how contacts are handled. By analysing the volume, content, and outcomes of all contacts across all channels (calls, emails, messaging chats, etc.), organisations can redirect flow more efficiently, maintain contact centre staffing at optimal levels, enhance the customer journey across channels and resolve individual engagements more effectively. Typical cost reduction results to reduce operating costs include, higher first call resolution, fewer deflections and repeat calls and lower average handle times. One customer, a consumer products manufacturer, cut its average customer service call handle time by 82 seconds, to give a real-life example.
What is your biggest challenge this year?
What channels are you using for outbound engagement for notifications and collections?
Do you agree/disagree that Open Banking makes your collections processes more efficient?
What role do you think Artificial Intelligence (AI) plays in predicting the future?
*More poll results are available on request
* ALL EVENT DATA AND POLL RESULTS ARE COPYRIGHTED TO CREDIT CONNECT MEDIA AND SHOULD NOT BE USED OR SHARED WITHOUT OUR PERMISSION
