Summary:
While the phone channel is a highly popular tool for organizations, consumers are more hesitant than ever to answer. So, how do third-party collections companies overcome that challenge? Organizations must gain consumer trust fast — before a customer even picks up their phone. This requires communicating information about an outbound call as quickly as possible.
Perhaps you remember back in the 1990’s, you’d be sitting down to dinner with your family or friends, only to be interrupted by the dreaded, mid-meal, landline telephone ring. And even though your pizza would get cold, you still might have answered the phone — because without caller ID, you couldn’t be sure who it was. It could be someone with big news! But more often, you’d spend a portion of your dinnertime convincing a stranger you didn’t need new car insurance or a second mortgage.
Today, even as fewer and fewer people have landlines, robocalls, call spoofing and fraud is rampant. The phone remains the channel of choice for fraudsters attempting to prey on unsuspecting consumers. In 2023, the FTC received fraud reports from 2.6 million consumers, with significant increases in reports of government impersonation schemes. Imposter scams resulted in nearly $2.7 billion in reported losses. Between the dramatic rise in fraud and nearly constant spam calls, it’s not surprising consumers rarely ever pick up the phone anymore.
Improve dialing effectiveness
Despite their fears, consumers value the phone channel, especially for urgent, complex or personal issues. In fact, 73% of respondents in our consumer survey said the phone channel is important when communicating with businesses. The phone is especially critical when it comes to the highly personal nature of third-party collections. When businesses are making thousands of outbound calls every day, even a small uptick in right-party contacts or promises-to-pay can have a significant impact on their bottom lines. Conversely, just a small downturn in these metrics can negatively impact profitability.
How can organizations get consumers — who are leery of spam calls or even worse, potentially getting conned out of their hard-earned money — to pick up?
Regaining consumer trust
Organizations must gain consumer trust fast — before a customer even picks up their phone. This requires communicating information about an outbound call as quickly as possible: Who are you? Where are you calling from? Why are you calling? Is this a spam call? Can this number be trusted? The speed at which organizations provide context for their calls plays a critical role in consumers’ decisions about whether to pick up the phone.
By adding this important context to outbound calls, businesses have increased call answer rates by up to 105%. Naturally, third-party collection organizations are unlikely to see this level of increase in pick-up rates — given the nature of these calls. However, this merely scratches the surface of the potential benefits. Displaying additional information, such as company name, number, logo and reason for the call, can drive consumers to act — even if they don’t answer the call. For third-party collections companies specifically, that often means increased payments.
How branded calling helps debt collections
A case study published by TransUnion® showed how branded calls can influence the bottom line, even when those calls go unanswered. A leading collections company ran a test to understand the impact TransUnion Branded Call Display could have on their outgoing calls. When placing outgoing calls to some consumers, their company name and logo were displayed, along with the reason for the call. A separate test group of approximately the same size received outgoing calls with only a phone number displayed and no additional context.
The test results revealed branded calls played a significant role in driving consumers to make payments — whether or not they answered the call. Because the branded call display showed up with the name and company calling, as well as the reason for the call, consumers had more context for the purpose of the (missed) call. As a result, the group that received the branded calls were 48% more likely to log in to the company’s collections portal and 62% more likely to make a payment on the portal.
Opportunities to increase efficiency and effectiveness
This case study illustrates a massive opportunity for third-party collections companies as they look for new ways to optimize their outbound calling operations and maximize profitability. By adding company name, logo and purpose for the call, collections agencies can improve right-party contact rates and ultimately increase promises to pay and payments.
Learn more about creating engaging and appealing outgoing call experiences for customers while simultaneously improving profitability metrics. The fact is, even if you happen to call during dinnertime and get no answer, the call can still have a significant impact on your bottom line.
