In this day and age, debt collection agencies are finding it harder and harder to get into contact with debtors.

Traditional methods of contact, namely letters and phone calls, are rapidly becoming outdated and are simply no longer cutting it. If your agency is struggling to make successful contact with debtors, this might be why.

Here are the 3 most common reasons you can’t get ahold of your debtors:

You Rely Too Heavily on Letters

Notification via letter mailing is standard practice in the ARM & Collections industry, but that does not make it the most effective means to your end. Letters can take days to arrive, often get shoved aside, and take effort to open and respond to. Not to mention, letter mailing comes at a steep price and cannot be efficiently tracked.

We are a part of a society that values convenience, which means letters are quickly becoming nothing more than relics of the past.

The Solution: Text-to-Pay Messaging

Text Messaging is instant and the messages are available in the debtors inbox whenever they have a free moment. At that point, they can text-to-pay. It’s easy, it’s instant and it’s automated.

They Don’t Answer the Phone

Caller-ID is standard on all phones, which means gone are the days of answering the phone for unsolicited calls. In fact, almost half of America’s population has done away with landlines and are strictly reliant on mobile devices.

With the instant gratification of email, text and social media, phone calls in general have evolved from the norm to an inconvenience. Not to mention, a ringing phone is disruptive. People are busy and prefer to respond to messages when they have the time.

The Solution: Text and Ringless Voicemail Drops.

We’ve already discussed why texting is so beneficial in point 1, but what are Ringless Voicemail Drops?

They are exactly what they sound like: a great way to drop a voicemail message in your debtors’ voicemail inbox without disturbing them by ringing their phone.

These drops are automated, so they don’t require any effort to create or release and they relay relevant information to the debtor. Their phone doesn’t cause a disturbance and they can call back when they have a free moment.

You Are Using a Robotic Answering Recording

If your debtor answers the phone and the first greeting they receive isn’t a live person, there is a good chance of a hang-up. If the voicemail you leave is robotic, there is a good chance you will not get a call back.

Robo-call scams have been on the rise as of late and people are trying to exercise caution, which means pre-recorded messages that sound too robotic are going to deter your debtors from responding.

The Solution: A Compliant Contacts Center System

You need to make sure that your system is qualifying right party contacts at moment-in-time of dial and that as soon as the debtor answers, the call is given to an available agent instantly.

No dialing wait-time for the agent and no lag for the debtor on the line.

If leaving voicemail drops, be sure to have a recording artist create a pre-recorded message that sounds helpful and human rather than robotic and intimidating.

Your company needs to be able to keep up with ever-changing contact trends in order to keep up with collections. Get a compliant all-in-one solution that includes text, ringless voicemail drops and real-time caller qualification to effectively reduce resource costs while increasing your revenues.