Start the Customer Experience Collections Strategies Revolution

Matt Edmunds

It has pained me to be a Miami Dolphins fan for over 40 years. It was fun through the ‘80s, but that’s hard to remember except for the Dan Marino memorabilia in my closet. If you’ve seen the news lately, you undoubtedly know about the bullying allegations going on within the Dolphins. It’s ugly and unacceptable, and gives a bad name to the entire team, and has brought debate about the NFL locker room culture.

Now, I’ve also been in and around the Collections business for a long time, and there’s many folks outside this industry who think the Collections culture is a bunch of bullies and tyrants. A few bad apples may have spoiled the bunch in Collections, but, maybe it’s time to take a new approach to Collections. It’s time to ask: Who cares about the Customer Experience (CX) in Collections?

Many lenders and credit grantors have talked and took some mild approaches about CX for years. They’ve done everything from renaming the collections department and agent titles to something more customer service sounding, and doing more coaching on the “friendly talk-off”. This won’t truly change the customer experience, but its movement in the right direction. What I’m talking about is a new approach to Collections – a communication revolution. Ok, a little overstated but what the heck. We need some innovation to change a cultural perception and get better results.

So imagine this: what if you created Customer Experience Collections Strategies (CXCS) that not only collected a lot of money, but did so in a compliant way that the customer preferred, on his/her terms, tailored to his/her life?

Now, maybe the old school Collections voice in me might say, “No chance, collections is about getting what you’re owed. If you go on customer terms nobody will pay you.” In the famous words of football broadcaster Lee Corso, “Not so fast my friend.” Think about it.

The vast majority of customers in Collections don’t want to be there any longer then they have to. But, how do you become the one who gets paid, and keeps the customer for life? It’s my belief in talking to other industry experts that we need a new lens to view Collections. One that is about Customer Experience Collections Strategies.

So, cool buzz words aside, what I’m proposing is taking a real look at all communication channels in your collections strategy. Here are some strategy questions you should be asking:

Have you tried to navigate your inbound IVR? Yes, I said “inbound”. Is it a great experience? Does it utilize customer best practices?
Do you ask your customers who are regular payers how they would like to be contacted going forward and honoring that without flaw?
Have you tried to do automated payments with your company? Is it a great experience? If not, you have a great opportunity in front of you to change your business and change results.
Have you done surveys of your customers in Collections to ask about their experience with not just your agents, but also with your technology?
Have you ensured that you can take payments and inquiries and chats through SMS, web, mobile device, and do it simultaneously across channels?

In order to change an industry culture of tyrants and bullies and move to a Customer Experience Collections Strategies (CXCS) one, we need to start by asking the basic question: What does your customer want? Aside from not hearing from you at all _– they want to engage on their terms and have anonymity/automation, multi-channel communication and payment options. Start thinking about the customer experience in your Collections operation and start changing the collections cultural perception. Start optimizing inbound, outbound, and all channels that impact customer experience.