All posts tagged result

Banks Report Fewer Accounts Past Due - Why This Is Not Necessarily Good News

by Brian Moore on August 18, 2011 in Banks/Finance, Brian Moore, Mortgage with 5 Comments
credit_card

TransUnion reported this week that in the second quarter of 2011 the number of US credit card accounts that are seriously delinquent (>90 days past due) dropped to its lowest level in 17 years. This continues a trend that began six quarters ago, bringing the rate down to 0.6%, nearly 40% lower than it was this time last year.

So why is nobody smiling?

If you're a consumer, you've probably got concerns about the economy and your job, and as a result you are reducing your spending with both cash and credit to save for the forecasted rainy day. After all, it’s a lot easier to keep a smaller credit card account up to date, but this does not necessarily mean you are happy doing so.

If you are a card issuer, the lower delinquencies translate to lower future loan losses, which is a good thing. But when it comes as a result of customers reducing their borrowing, it means lower income from interest and puts increased pressure on bank operations (like collections) to do things more efficiently. So you are not happy.

And if you happen to also be a mortgage lender, the news is even worse. In contrast to the improving trend in credit card delinquency, the number of past due mortgages continues to climb. According to Lender Processing Services, the number of mortgages over 30 days past due has increased by 3% in the past two months. This means mortgage servicers have even more work to do as they implement the aggressive outreach to delinquent borrowers mandated by Fannie & Freddie's revised servicing guidelines.

No wonder everyone is grumpy. For me, that's strong motivation to take a look at operational strategies and tactics and adapt them to these new dynamics:

  • Consumers should take advantage of their reduced debt loads to improve their credit scores by paying every bill on time. If you've not already done so, get enrolled in your creditors auto-debit programs so you never miss a due date. And if your credit is already excellent, think about re-financing your mortgage at the lowest interest rates in modern history.
  • Credit card issuers should be sure to leverage their customer's increased awareness of their credit standing by treating delinquent accounts early in their aging, before it is reported past due to the bureaus. When you do, be sure to mention the positive  impact prompt payment can have on credit scores to incent the customer to pay today.
  • With the increased workload required by the GSEs, mortgage servicers must automate their customer outreach, using digital interactions such as interactive voice messages, SMS text and email to lead customers into profitable action. Even if the outcome is forbearance or loss mitigation rather than payment, it’s better than allowing the delinquent borrower to hide from the obligation and delay the inevitable day of reckoning.

Call Centers and Personality Mapping

by Mary Cook on July 14, 2011 in Call Centers, Mary Cook with 2 Comments

personality mapping1 Call Centers and Personality Mapping

One of the keys to success in delivering great customer service in the call center is matching a customer to the right agent. This is why skill based routing was born. In today’s digital world companies realize they can no longer take the approach of treating every customer the same. They want to provide personalized service to each customer as much as possible in an effort to build customer loyalty. There is much to say about the rapport between a customer and an agent. There is that something “special” that occurs during a conversation that goes beyond traditionally trained soft skills, and it has to do with personality types “clicking”. This chemistry is what many organizations are looking to utilize in an attempt to enhance their customer experience.

So how can companies match customers to agents based on skill as well as personality? Not surprisingly, it is all about the data. You need to have access to detailed data on your customers including their personality traits, which can then be used to route calls to the correct agent. Think of it as another layer of customer information that includes details about behaviors, habits, and traits, and details that go beyond just demographical information, preferred method of contact, or last item purchased. These personality details are then used to match a customer with the most suitable agent through enhanced intelligent call routing.

Personality mapping is facilitated by technology that matches your customers to your agents based on personality. It uses information that you understand about your customers and your call center agents and matches people who are more likely to have an optimal result. What an “optimal result” means to your organization should be determined while building your business requirements when you are considering personality routing. For example, an optimal result for a call center could be increased revenues. If this is the case, customers would be routed to agents who are more likely to get sales.

Optimally aligning agent and caller personalities can make a difference in your call center performance. In your call center, you most likely have a group of agents who always do well, another group that is in the middle, and another group that performs below standards. As customer service professionals, we know agents matters in transactions. If a customer calls and speaks to an agent and has a poor contact outcome, if they had arrived at a different agent, the call may have resulted differently.

I do recommend personality mapping be used in call centers with 100 agents or more. As a general rule bigger is better than smaller when executing personality mapping. More agents create more transactions and it is transactions that develop your model faster. If you have a hundred agents dispositioning 10 calls an hour, then you have thousands of transactions in a day and your system will learn faster.

Personality mapping puts the right people together. You can use personality mapping in an effort to increase the buying opportunity, reduce miscommunications, reduce callbacks, and improve levels of customer and agent satisfaction. And nothing pleases me more knowing that when my retired father who hates call center (yes, really…) reaches out to his providers there is the potential that he may get routed to an agent who fears no difficult customer and can speak “cranky” with ease…

Why are patients not taking their medication?

by Varolii on January 10, 2011 in Healthcare, Industry News with No comments

Millions of people don't take their medications correctly, which can lead to staggering health and financial consequences.

Sometimes patients cannot afford their prescriptions. Other times, people forget doses, buy their drugs but misunderstand the dosage, feel better and stop taking the medicine, or skip doses for fear of the side effects. Continue reading →

Collections agencies turn to SMS messaging for proactive customer communications

by Varolii on December 20, 2010 in Airlines, Banks/Finance, Consumer Svcs, Industry News, Mobile/Telcom, Retail, Utilities with No comments

These days, it is more common to contact consumers through their mobile phones than via a landline. As a result, companies, especially collection agencies, are moving to adopt mobile customer communications strategies.

In a recent article for insideARM, Matt Edmunds writes that collection companies must evolve their contact strategies to take full advantage of this market and drive the effectiveness of collections. One surefire way to do this: SMS messaging services.

Additionally, collections firms are not just engaging in outbound communications. Many are experimenting with inbound SMS messaging as well, according to Edmunds. With this feature, consumers are able to contact a company and ask questions through SMS messages.

"By obliging the customer's desire to interact via the channel of his/her choice, you vastly improve your chances of securing payment in the most effective and efficient manner available," explains Edmunds.

The website PitchEngine adds that SMS messaging has grown increasingly popular for its relative ease of use by both consumers and companies, generally only requiring three quick steps to sign up a user as a subscriber.

Hosted communications gain in popularity among contact centers

by Varolii on December 15, 2010 in Call Centers, Industry News with No comments

As a result of the recession, contact center software has been updated and revamped to provide more flexible and cost-effective ways of doing business, a recent report finds.

Contact centers are increasingly moving to hosted solutions, according to the recent 2010-2011 Hosted Contact Center Infrastructure Market Report by DMG Consulting. In fact, the report notes that hosted call center implementations grew by approximately 50 percent between 2008 and 2009.

This growth is expected to continue for the next four years, increasing by 35 percent in 2010, 25 percent in 2011, 20 percent in 2012 and 18 percent in 2013, the study reports.

"The competitive landscape of the contact center infrastructure market is changing," said Donna Fluss, president of DMG Consulting. "We are living and doing business in a different world than we were two or three years ago. Enterprises want more choice, flexibility and functionality for their money, and the hosted market is showing users a lot of promise by delivering and investing in these areas."

Another contact center technology is expected to grow through 2015 as well. A report by Pelorus Associates found that demand for contact center recording systems, which hit sales of $800 million in 2009, are expected increase by a whopping 55 percent by 2015, to total sales of $1.24 billion.

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