Our new Fairness in Collections research reveals how people are feeling about their debt:
28% feel embarrassed and afraid
71% are stressed about their financial situation
62% avoid communicating with the companies they owe money
The findings suggest that organisations should be growing the number of channels through which they are engaging with their customers. Increasing choice and convenience for them will help customers who may feel too ashamed to speak to an agent on the phone.
Find out what customers want from you.
Download the full report
Organisations are not analysing the information they hold on their customers to better understand them.
Having a rich picture of your customer is vital if you want to optimise customer engagement by taking the right approach at the right time.
Successful collections teams work with a full customer profile created from their own data, supplemented by external data sources and credit analytics.
Read more from Capita's experts
Some organisations decide on the best customer contact strategies prior to any customer engagement.
Our research suggests customers respond better when they receive messages in the right language and tone, at the right time and through the right channel.
46 % of research respondents prefer to be contacted by email
Organisations have typically relied on letter and phone calls to collect debt.
As customer behaviour shifts towards more digital interactions, leading organisation are implementing true multi-channel customer engagement in line with these trends.
They are providing full self-service options, including payments, and are helping customers to use debt advice services.
52% Fairness in Collections respondents want to be able to self-serve on line
With typical linear approaches to collections, organisations fail to maximise customer engagement opportunities, which can result in missed opportunities for first contact resolution.
Now, with clean, accessible analytics and intelligent technical solutions, you can implement agile strategies that allow you to challenge current collections approaches, driving continuous improvement across the customer journey.
Read more from the Capita team
A collections agents’ performance was traditionally measured on their ability to collect cash.
Now organisations must focus on improving the customer experience and protecting their brand reputation by developing their agents’ emotional intelligence and people skills, so that they can connect with customers and treat them fairly.
This empathetic approach improves customer rehabilitation, often preventing customers from failing into arrears in the first place.
Learn about how Capita can help you address this challenge
Download our Health Check guide today.