Multichannel outreach strategy leverages TransUnion communications solutions
Scenario
Originally called Credit Collection Partners (CCP), PayCourt — a debt resolution group headquartered in Illinois — supports over 90 of Illinois’ 102 counties in its efforts to recoup outstanding court fines/fees. Funds collected help sustain critical court- and county-sponsored programs like probation services and court security — while also ensuring victims receive restitution and other vital social services for county residents are supported.
Historically, and like most debt collection agencies, PayCourt primarily relied on the phone channel to reach consumers. By 2019, however, the company faced industry-wide challenges with the surge of calls mistagged as spam or outright blocked. This limited its ability to reach consumers, which in turn negatively impacted right-party contact rates as fewer people answered their phones. These barriers ultimately affected the ability to collect on accounts.
In addition, the lack of consumer trust in the voice channel, changing communication preferences, regulatory mandates and economic pressures made it clear PayCourt needed to enhance operational efficiencies and improve consumer experiences through new technologies. This meant leveraging digital communication channels, such as email and text messaging, to drive more traffic to online payment portals and expand self-service options. But the company still faced a critical challenge: modernizing its approach to contact data enrichment. Given the limited demographic information provided by courts on fines and obligations, it lacked complete, up-to-date contact information needed to reach constituents.
“A friend of mine, who’s now also a business partner, recommended TransUnion (then Neustar) to us. We were very excited about the unique ways TransUnion was able to acquire information for appending and enriching customer contact data. We chose to implement three of their powerful solutions. I’ll never look at another vendor.
Strategy
To address spam mistagging and call blocking, PayCourt implemented Caller Name Optimization (CNO) and saw immediate results with a 27% improvement in answer rates. CNO helps ensure legitimate calls aren’t flagged as spam or blocked, improving engagement and protecting brand reputation.
As the industry continued to evolve, Bonitzer recognized the importance of adopting a true “digital-first” strategy. In PayCourt’s model, digital channels, email and MMS (not SMS) are used exclusively during the initial contact period. Traditional outreach methods like phone calls are only introduced after this digital-first period expires, helping mitigate compliance risk while optimizing consumer preferences.
The challenges, however, were incomplete consumer data and knowing when to contact accounts. Courts haven’t always provided complete contact details, such as phone numbers and email addresses, requiring PayCourt to enrich and append data to ensure effective outreach.
This is where TransUnion Phone Behavior Intelligence (PBI) and Email Behavior Intelligence (EBI) became crucial. PBI provides authoritative identity and behavioral insights to identify the best numbers, in addition to the best time of day and week to connect with consumers. With PBI, PayCourt experienced a 31% uptick in right-party contact rates — which significantly improved the operational effectiveness of its outbound communications.
With the implementation of EBI to improve email deliverability and engagement through analyzing activity, linkage and deliverability patterns, PayCourt reduced and consistently maintains spam and bounce rates below 1%, and improved customer interactions and promises to pay.
Today, PayCourt’s strategy includes four to six weeks of digital outreach through email and MMS campaigns that drive consumers to the PayCourt portal for payment resolution. If digital efforts fail, more traditional methods ensue. This multichannel approach to building trust in communications and engaging consumers in the channels they prefer has improved PayCourt’s communications strategies — as evidenced by an overall double-digit increase in liquidation rate.
“When we decided to implement a digital-first strategy, we knew we needed a partner that would provide the best possible consumer data available. It proved to be TransUnion. We’ve had so much success with our operational blueprint that we’ve begun exploring the mergers and acquisitions landscape for agencies that would most benefit from this type of highly digital, highly automated approach.”
Results
RESULTS
- 31% Increase in right-party contact rates by introducing PBI
- 27% Improvement in answer rates by reducing spam labels on calls
- Below 1% Email unsubscribe rates
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