Cutting Costs, Not Corners: Smarter Collections for Financial Services

Automating a critical but labour- and time-consuming function

One area where financial service providers are unlikely to find customers willing to use self-service support options is debt collection and delinquency recovery. The traditional labour-intensive outbound collections process is both costly and inefficient, with success rates for collections campaigns estimated at 5% by Ernst & Young.

It doesn’t have to be that way. Text-to-speech capabilities have advanced to the point where fully automated, case-specific communications can be delivered to delinquent customers via a voice bot through easily programmable open APIs.

Introducing 8x8 Debt Collection Solution

8x8’s Debt Collection Solution allows you to reduce the costs and time required for debt collections calls, perform collections activities 24/7, and increase the likelihood of reaching hard-to-contact delinquent customers using number masking.

How 8x8 Debt Collection Solution Works

A voice bot is used to make automated calls and deliver personalized messages to delinquent customers using text-to-speech technology. Automated workflows can be pre-built, using customizable templates, to send customers overdue payment reminders, notify of upcoming pre-agreed payment dates, or to negotiate repayment plans.

During customer calls, the voice bot can offer repayment plan options to the customer or transfer calls to agents when requested. All calls are recorded to capture customer responses, and speech recognition technology is used to analyse responses to ensure that agreements have been accurately captured and that any negotiation process was conducted in compliance with regulations.

Case Study: Financial services company automates payment reminders

Voice bot automates personalized calls to debtors using text-to-speech for overdue payment reminders
Options are provided during the call for debtors to acknowledge the reminder or speak to a live agent
All calls are recorded and analyzed with speech recognition to capture debtor responses and ensure compliance
A follow-up SMS is sent to confirm the reminder in writing

Post-call, written validation of customer/bot conversations are sent to customers via SMS. In addition, full session summaries can be sent by webhook to the platform of a user’s choice.