Category: Product and Technology

The TrueAccord Difference for a Better Self-Serve Consumer Experience

By on October 18th, 2024 in Customer Experience, Industry Insights, Machine Learning, Product and Technology, User Experience
The TrueAccord Difference for a Better Self Serve Consumer Experience scaled

While many financial service institutions can offer basic payment portals, these are often limited when it comes to collecting on delinquent accounts. TrueAccord delivers a robust difference.

Self-serve options should be a key part of any collections operation. In fact, research from McKinsey found that consumers who digitally self-serve resolve their debts at higher rates, are significantly more likely to pay in full, and report higher levels of customer satisfaction than consumers who pay via a collection call.

At TrueAccord, we provide more than a basic payment portal—the power of our self-serve solutions gives your business and your customers better control over the repayment process. TrueAccord’s self-serve portal delivers less friction for delinquent consumers ready to manage their debt, while your organization determines the extent of account details to display, what flexible payment options you’d like to provide, and more.

Let’s look at how TrueAccord provides a superior consumer experience and better bottom-line results for your business through our self-serve portal and solutions.

Why Offer Self-Serve Options on Top of Traditional Collection Methods?

Two of the most prominent use cases for deploying self-serve channels are consumer preference and compliance—and both are success stories for TrueAccord.

The numbers cannot be ignored: 98% of delinquent consumers serviced by TrueAccord resolve their debt without any human interaction, which in turn saves time, resources, and headcount. When asked why they pay bills online, three in 10 consumer survey respondents said they like the flexibility to pay whenever and wherever they want—a convenience traditional call-and-collect methods cannot extend to consumers due to FDCPA’s “Inconvenient Times” rule under Regulation F.

The “Inconvenient Times” rule prohibits calls to consumers before 8 a.m. or after 9 p.m. in the consumer’s local time zone, because calls made during those times are presumed inconvenient. But self-serve options put the power in the consumer’s hand 24/7. At TrueAccord, 29% of online payments are made outside of traditional FDCPA hours.

Self-Serve Success with Advanced Machine Learning and Omnichannel Engagement

Does your digital debt collection outreach strategy extend beyond email or SMS? A true omnichannel approach goes further to interweave self-serve options—and TrueAccord delivers.

Whether via email, text message, or even physical letters, there are several ways TrueAccord reaches consumers in debt collection and empower them to take charge of their repayment journey through the self-serve portal.

And even if the first engagement attempt is unsuccessful, HeartBeat—TrueAccord’s patented machine learning decision-engine—will adjust communication cadence, content, and even channel dynamically.

Studies show that 54% of consumers expect their financial provider to leverage the data they have about them to personalize their experience, so HeartBeat looks at individual account characteristics—like debt type, creditor, balance size, age of debt, etc.—and selects a message (written by experienced debt collection content creators) based on previous interactions with consumers that have similar characteristics. Thanks to our 35 million consumer interactions collected, HeartBeat drives both the optimal engagement and repayment rates while working within both our client’s guidelines and regulatory requirements.

Want to take an even deeper dive into the consumer experience-side of TrueAccord’s self-serve portal? Download our free eBook for more details and a visual walkthrough of the consumer experience when using our portal here»»

What Do TrueAccord Consumers Have to Say?

Don’t take our word for it—read testimonials and feedback from real consumers who have resolved their delinquent accounts through TrueAccord’s self-serve portal:

  • “This was a great experience for me. The portal was so easy to operate quickly and easily. Thank you.”
  • “Easiest to work with, never had to speak with a representative, was able to fully manage and pay off the account via their online portal.”
  • “I appreciated the zero harassment, easy portal interface. I have been stressed about this for a while, hardship came up, but you made it easy and less stressful to take care of.”
  • “Thank you for being patient and for having a portal that makes it easy to make the payment without filling out a bunch of stuff and having to make an account.”
  • “I appreciate you notifying me via email and having a great online payment portal. It made the process really easy.”

Ready to Get Started?

Empower consumers with a self-serve experience—and collect faster from happier people. Schedule a consultation and get set for a live demo of the TrueAccord self-serve portal»»

Sources:

Consumers Prefer Self-Serve Options for Debt Repayment—and Businesses Cannot Afford to Ignore Consumer Preferences

By on October 17th, 2024 in User Experience, Customer Experience, Machine Learning, Product and Technology
Consumers Prefer Self Serve Options for Debt Repayment—and Businesses Cannot Afford to Ignore Consumer Preferences 1 scaled

Self-service portals are an empowering way to get consumers back on track. In fact, research from McKinsey found that consumers who digitally self-serve resolve their debts at higher rates and are significantly more likely to pay in full. Just take into consideration that surveys have found that four in 10 have used an online portal supplied by a financial institution for bill pay, while only a quarter have paid by phone, mailing a check, or in person.

But along with helping your bottom line, consumers just prefer these kinds of self-serve methods for payments.

Let’s dive even deeper into consumer behavior and preferences when it comes to handling payments and account management via self-service—and why organizations cannot ignore the numbers.

Self-Serve Preferences by the Numbers

The numbers don’t lie—more consumers want and use self-serve online portals for bill pay:

  • 60% of consumers prefer self-service options
  • 54% of surveyed consumers have used an online portal supplied by a biller
  • 47% prefer self-serve portals because of the convenience and flexibility

And businesses cannot afford to ignore these preferences:

  • 81% of customers want more self-serve options
  • 14% of bill-payers who prioritize at least one bill over others identified the ease of making payments as a key factor in that decision-making process
  • According to one study performed by McKinsey, a bank saw a 15% increase of cured accounts after implementing a self-service option
  • 70% of customers expect a company’s website to include a self-service application

Despite this data, a 2023 Transunion report shows that 64% of collections agencies don’t have self-serve capabilities, and simply increasing customer calling won’t improve contact and recovery rates.

But don’t worry—TrueAccord’s self-serve portal has proven to be a win for both businesses and their customers, with 98% of delinquent consumers serviced by TrueAccord resolving their debt without any human interaction.

TrueAccord’s Machine Learning Engine Powers a Better, Compliant Self-Serve Experience

At TrueAccord, we know that every consumer’s delinquency situation is unique and so are their repayment and engagement preferences. So from our initial outreach, we tailor our consumer communications using our patented machine learning engine, HeartBeat, to determine the right message, right channel, and right time to engage.

HeartBeat uses a machine learning model that looks at account properties and chooses a communication (written by experienced debt collection content creators) based on previous interactions with consumers that have similar characteristics.

This is important since studies show that 53% of consumers expect their financial provider to leverage the data they have about them to personalize their experience. From messaging that resonates to flexible payment options within our self-serve portal, TrueAccord uses advanced machine learning to drive the optimal engagement and repayment rates while working within both our client’s guidelines and regulatory requirements.

Our self-serve portal meets collections compliance rules while also meeting a consumer preference at the same time. When asked why they pay bills online, three in 10 survey respondents said they like the flexibility to pay whenever and wherever they want—a convenience traditional call-and-collect methods cannot extend to consumers due to FDCPA’s “Inconvenient Times” rule under Regulation F. The “Inconvenient Times” rule prohibits calls to consumers before 8 a.m. or after 9 p.m. in the consumer’s local time zone, because calls made during those times are presumed inconvenient. But self-serve options put the power in the consumer’s hand 24/7. At TrueAccord, 29% of online payments are made outside of traditional FDCPA hours.

By following all compliance regulations and your business’s guidelines, our consumer outreach aims to drive the most engagement and commitment to repayment through the self-serve portal.

What Consumers Have to Say About TrueAccord’s Self-Serve Portal

We’ve looked at a lot of statistics supporting consumers’ preference for self-serve options, but let’s hear from real consumers that have used TrueAccord’s portal:

  • “This was a great experience for me. The portal was so easy to operate quickly and easily. Thank you.”
  • “Easiest to work with, never had to speak with a representative, was able to fully manage and pay off the account via their online portal.”

“I appreciated the zero harassment, easy portal interface. I have been stressed about this for a while, hardship came up, but you made it easy and less stressful to take care of.”

  • “Thank you for being patient and for having a portal that makes it easy to make the payment without filling out a bunch of stuff and having to make an account.”
  • “I appreciate you notifying me via email and having a great online payment portal. It made the process really easy.”

And put quite simply, our consumers “love this online payment portal.”

Want to take a peek at TrueAccord’s Self-Serve Portal? Download our free eBook for more details and a visual walkthrough of the consumer experience when using our portal here»»

Ready to see a demo in action and learn more about all of TrueAccord’s omnichannel, machine-learning powered collections? Schedule a consultation today»»

Sources:

The Low Friction Way For Consumers to Repay: Self-Serve Options for Debt Collection

By on October 7th, 2024 in Product and Technology, Compliance, Customer Experience, Industry Insights, Machine Learning, User Experience
The Low Friction Way For Consumers to Repay Self Serve Options for Debt Collection scaled

After months of inflation woes, both economists and consumers are starting to see a glimpse of optimism.In the first interest rate cut since the early days of the Covid pandemic, the Federal Reserve announced in September 2024 that it is slicing half a percentage point off benchmark rates. So it’s not surprising that Americans are getting more confident that inflation is cooling off, but optimism for the U.S. economy doesn’t extend to personal finances—consumer expectations for going delinquent on their debt in the next three months hit their highest level since the start of the pandemic.

And the share of severely delinquent credit card debt rose to 10.7% during the first quarter of 2024, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, compared to just 8.2% of credit card debt more than 90 days overdue in 2023.

But better customer engagement strategies can help businesses recover more debt—and self-serve portals are an empowering way to get consumers back on track.

What is a “self-serve portal” in financial services and collections?

In the financial services sector, a self-service or self-serve portal is a secure online platform or application designed to empower consumers to make payments and, ideally, allow them to manage their accounts and payment terms independently (although not all portals offer the same functionality). Self-serve portals aim to grant customers the ability to manage their finances without the help of a service representative.

For both businesses and consumers, reducing the need to engage directly with human agents to make payments or access account information saves time and resources. Overall, these self-service solutions represent a shift towards greater consumer control over their financial health, providing an efficient way for individuals to address and manage their finances—and debts specifically—on their own terms.

What are the benefits of offering self-service options in debt collection?

Similar to any other financial institution or ecommerce business, self-service portals in collections intend to foster a sense of autonomy for the delinquent consumer to manage their debt without the pressure or inconvenience of interacting with a call center agent. Besides creating a more preferred experience for the consumer, organizations needing to recoup funds will reap several benefits by providing self-serve options as well:

Cost Savings:
In today’s digital world, call centers or full-time employees (FTEs) dedicated to late-stage collections have proven to be an expensive and less effective path for debt recovery. Employees often spend a significant amount of time arranging repayment plans, providing account details, and processing payments—and that’s if the consumer actually answers the collector’s call. So when it comes to cost savings, just consider this: the average cost of a contact center call is $8.01, which is 80x more expensive than a self-service interaction.

Scalability:
Unlike human agents who can physically only make a certain number of calls per day and are legally only allowed to call consumers during convenient hours (as defined by Regulation F), self-serve portals are available to consumers 24/7. These platforms can handle any number of collection cases at any time of day without compromising user experience, making it easy to scale your capacity as delinquency volumes rise—no additional headcount required.

Compliance:
Non-compliance can be costly in the collection landscape heavily regulated by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB). Whether partnering with a third party or training FTEs, the risk of human error resulting in compliance violations is easily mitigated with digital self-serve solutions that have compliance controls built in—but this does require due diligence on the business or lenders’ part to ask and verify that the solution is keeping up with all necessary regulation and industry security standards.

Frictionless Consumer Experience:
Surveys have found that consumers both prefer and want more self-serve options to repay, but that is just the tip of the iceberg of what consumer preferences can mean for your recovery and resolution rates. Research from McKinsey found consumers who digitally self-serve (versus consumers who pay via a collection call):

  • Resolve their debts at higher rates 
  • Significantly more likely to pay in full 
  • Report higher levels of customer satisfaction

Proven Success with TrueAccord’s Self-Serve Portal

While many financial service institutions already offer basic payment portals, these are often limited when it comes to collecting on delinquent accounts. And traditional call centers typically cannot provide self-serve options, even if they can offer other digital options like email or SMS for consumer outreach.

But TrueAccord provides more than a simple payment portal—the power of our self-serve solutions gives your business and your consumers better control over the repayment process for better results.

TrueAccord delivers less friction and frustration for delinquent consumers ready to manage their debt, while your organization determines the extent of account details to display, what flexible payment options you’d like to provide, and more.

In fact, 98% of delinquent consumers serviced by TrueAccord resolve their debt without any human interaction, with 29% of online payments made outside of traditional FDCPA hours—saving time, resources, and headcount while meeting consumer preferences compliantly under Reg F’s inconvenient time rule and beyond.

Want to take a peek at TrueAccord’s Self-Serve Portal? Download our free eBook for more details and a visual walkthrough of the consumer experience when using our portal here»»

Ready to see a demo in action and learn more about all of TrueAccord’s omnichannel, machine-learning powered collections? Schedule a consultation today»»

Sources:

Client Success Story: Online Lender Achieves 30% Better Late-Stage Collection Result Through Empathetic, Omnichannel Approach

By on September 12th, 2024 in Client Success Story, Customer Experience, Product and Technology, User Experience
Online Lender Achieves Better Collections and Consumer Experience Across Borrower Lifecycle Teaser Blog scaled

TrueAccord proved more effective for late-stage collections and better aligned with online lender’s empathetic approach to financial services.

For one online lender, providing online personal loans to underserved consumers was not only a core service for their business but also a key part of their company mission. This tech-enabled financial platform offers safe, simple, and affordable credit access to consumers with varied financial histories who lack traditional options, emphasizing empathy and support in their customer interactions.

Historically, the online lender relied on legal avenues for debt collection, a tactic not always in line with the empathetic approach the company championed in their other services. While they wanted to improve their liquidation rates, the lender recognized they needed more of a traditional agency along with their existing legal strategy—but the challenge was to find a collection agency that could balance effectiveness with a consumer-centric approach that could mirror the lender’s empathetic mission throughout the borrower lifecycle. Simply adding a call center-based agency would be counter-intuitive for an online lender with digital and omnichannel collection partners available to provide a smoother customer experience.

During their due diligence looking at potential debt recovery partners that have integrated digital into the consumer communication mix, a new question arose: how would they decide between the newer, digital-focused agencies that have entered the collections space?

Enter the champion-challenger evaluation method pitting TrueAccord against another digital collections provider.

Over a six-month period, the online lender evenly split their available late-stage collections market share 50/50 between TrueAccord and the competitor agency. Although the challenger collection agency provided somewhat similar services for consumer engagement by including some digital outreach along with traditional outbound dialing and letters, TrueAccord’s robust omnichannel approach was backed by over a decade of experience using digital-first communication methods.

And the results would prove that TrueAccord was not only superior in effectively collecting from late-stage accounts, but also in overall mission alignment with the lender’s efforts towards a more empathetic approach to financial services. Even before the online lender began to explore options for collecting on late-stage debts, both the lender and TrueAccord shared a focus on helping consumers; and by partnering together, they were able to provide that consumer-centric approach to financial services throughout the entire borrower lifecycle.

Screenshot 2024 09 06 at 9.41.02 AM edited

TrueAccord consistently outperformed the challenger to the point where it became clear that the lender was actually losing money by continuing to give 50% of their available market share to the competitor. In fact, over time, TrueAccord’s liquidation rates were 30% higher than that of its competitor.

Together, TrueAccord not only enhanced and improved the lender’s debt recovery efforts but also reinforced their company values to deliver empathy even after delinquency—no small feat in the traditional debt collection industry.

Discover the TrueAccord difference that helps clients achieve better liquidation rates and happier consumers in the full, in-depth case study available for download here»»

Are you ready to evaluate your legacy collections servicer against TrueAccord’s proven digital-first, omnichannel approach? Schedule a consultation today!

Digital-First Debt Collection Delivers 35% Liquidation Increase for Leading Telecoms

By on May 1st, 2024 in Industry Insights, Customer Experience, Data Report, Product and Technology, User Experience
Blog Art Leading Telecoms Dark scaled

Telecom Industry Evolves, But Call-and-Collect Can’t Keep Up

The telecommunications industry has evolved hand-in-hand with most consumer communication preferences throughout the decades. From the last remaining landlines to mobile and internet services, it’s challenging to find a consumer that doesn’t subscribe to a Telecom service.

Yet while Telecoms enable customers to communicate and access products and services via digital channels wherever they go, the industry’s own methodology for communicating with consumers who have fallen delinquent on their bills is quite antiquated for the modern world they operate in.

Many Telecoms have traditionally used call centers for collection services to collect charged-off debt, but face mounting challenges all contributing to less revenue:

These challenges are not unique to telecoms, but considering the evolution of the industry it would only make sense that their debt collection practices would also adapt to consumer preference for digital and omnichannel communications.

Future-Facing Digital-First Solutions Deliver Real Liquidation Results

For some of the leading Telecom providers in the US, the time had come to face the declining third-party liquidation performance and reevaluate their debt recovery approach. A more future-forward, effective engagement model was being adopted throughout other industries and it was time for these Telecoms to test the waters of digital-first outreach for late stage collections…and TrueAccord was there to be their guide.

Through a champion-challenger model during the six-month pilot, TrueAccord’s digital-first, omnichannel engagement proved to be more effective at recovering from the late stage accounts. Between multiple portfolios across three Telecom providers, the results tipped the scale so moving forward all accounts would be serviced entirely through TrueAccord’s platform.

Each of the Telecom providers saw notable increases in liquidation using TrueAccord compared to their traditional call-and-collect methods:

  • First Telecom: 35% increase
  • Second Telecom: 7% increase
  • Third Telecom: 32% increase

How did TrueAccord’s digital-first approach deliver these kinds of results? Get the detailed breakdown in our in-depth Telecom case study»»

Are you ready to evaluate your legacy collections servicer against TrueAccord’s proven digital-first, omnichannel approach? Schedule a consultation today!

TrueAccord’s Digital-First Engagement Out-Performs Call-and-Collect for National Bank’s Late-Stage Debt Recovery

By on February 7th, 2024 in User Experience, Industry Insights, Product and Technology
TrueAccords Digital First Engagement Out Performs Call and Collect for National Banks Late Stage Debt Recovery 1 scaled

After three decades of providing exceptional customer experience, a leading national bank recognized a lot has changed in the world of personal banking, technology, compliance, and, in turn, debt collection. To continue delivering the level of service their customers expect meant it was time for the bank to update their recovery methods for the new digital age.

Although the bank had seen moderate success in late-stage collections with their call-and-collect vendor, they had a list of goals that they were unsure their existing collection provider could achieve:

  • Improve and increase liquidation performance
  • Keep up with new regulations and ensure compliance
  • Leverage new, more cost-effective solution

But what was the best way to evaluate the effectiveness of new digital-first engagement versus their existing outbound calling approach?

To test and measure the success of each distinct debt recovery method, the bank decided to use the Champion-Challenger model with TrueAccord joining their existing collections partner.

For their Champion-Challenger test, the bank assigned TrueAccord 50% of primary placements and tertiary placements against their traditional collection provider. By using scorecards, the bank was able to compare the two using set collection goals (varying by month and season) and several key performance indicators (KPIs), including:

  • Overall liquidation rates
  • Percentage of settlements in full
  • Percentage over/under set collection goals

With the Champion-Challenger model in place, collection goals and KPIs designated, and scorecards set, it was time to see how TrueAccord’s digital engagement methods would measure up compared to the old school call-and-collect method…and the numbers would speak for themselves.

Download the full case study to get an in-depth look at:

  • How TrueAccord won 100% of the bank’s primary placements
  • Why the Champion-Challenger model works so effectively for optimal debt recovery
  • What KPIs were used to compare call-and-collect vs TrueAccord’s digital engagement

Download the case study here»»

Ready to improve your collections communications using TrueAccord’s proven digital-first engagement approach? Schedule a consultation today!

Declining RPC Rates, Rising Consumer Complaints: Why Outbound Calling for Debt Collection Won’t Work in 2024

By on January 31st, 2024 in Industry Insights, Customer Experience, Product and Technology, User Experience
Declining RPC Rates V1 scaled

If your business plans to use outbound calling as the main mode of engaging past-due customers in 2024…good luck.

Good luck reaching the right number for the target customer.
Good luck getting them to commit to repayment over the phone.
Good luck not getting complaints.

And if the plan is only to use outbound calling…be prepared to start accepting more losses in 2024. Even if you can get the right customer on the phone, studies show 49.5% of consumers take no action after a collection call.

Let’s look at the challenges around right-party contact rates, consumer complaints, and the timely factors that make the challenges more detrimental to your business’s late-stage debt recovery.

Declining RPC Rates

The decline of right-party contact rates (RPC)—the percentage of calls in which an agent is able to connect with the target consumer—isn’t new for 2024, but its impact on debt collection is reaching new heights in the new year. RPC is considered one of the most accurate measurements for the effectiveness of an organization’s outbound calling efforts, whether internally or through a third party.

Surveys from the Association of Credit and Collections Professionals (ACA International) found that 62% of the respondents reported seeing a decrease in right-party contacts, with 78% of the respondents experiencing call-blocking and 74% having their calls mislabeled.

Call-blocking and spam-mislabeling are only part of the issue for RPC rates: government regulations, robocalls, lack of consumer trust in answering calls, and inaccurate phone data all contribute to the drop in RPC rates.

The bottom line is the declining RPC rates are negatively affecting your business’s bottom line—but that’s not the only challenge outbound dialing for debt collection faces in 2024.

Rising Consumer Complaints

As almost all other forms of financial transactions have evolved, so have consumers’ communication preferences in that arena. Nearly nine in ten Americans are now using some form of digital payments and 59.5% of consumers prefer email as their first choice for communication, but traditional call-and-collect methods still dominate in late-stage recovery efforts.

And with that in mind, it shouldn’t be surprising that consumers complain about debt collectors’ and creditors’ communication tactics used when collecting debts.

But beyond ignoring communication preferences, many consumer complaints actually equate to compliance violations.

According to the 2022 Annual Report on the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA), 51% of communication-related complaints were because of repeated calls. Despite the 7-in-7 Rule (debt collectors are prohibited from calling the same consumer more than seven times within seven consecutive days, unless the consumer directly gives consent to receive any additional calls), 17% of respondents of a Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) survey said a creditor or debt collector tried contacting them eight or more times per week. Similarly, other common complaints revolve around the collector or creditor calling at inconvenient hours outside of the FDCPA presumed convenient calling hours from 8:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m. at the consumer’s location.

But again, even if you are following the letter of the law, it doesn’t protect your brand’s reputation from consumer complaints.

Minimize These Collection Challenges with a Digital-First Approach

Between declining RPC rates, shifting consumer preferences, rising consumer complaints, and increasingly stricter compliance regulations, the once tried-and-true outbound calling methods are no longer viable in 2024.

But your business doesn’t have to resign to accepting losses once accounts hit late-stage delinquency—taking a digital-first approach negates concerns over RPC rates, catches up with evolving consumer preferences, neutralizes the cause of common consumer complaints, and smoothly navigates compliance requirements.

Kick start your 2024 recovery efforts with a digital-first consumer communication approach—learn more and get started now»»

Email Deliverability in Debt Collection: Six Key Questions to Ask Your Provider

By on October 23rd, 2023 in Product and Technology, Customer Experience, Industry Insights, User Experience
The blog title set in front of an image of someone checking their email.

Did you know one of the most common reasons for missing a payment is because customers simply forget to pay their bill?

But staying top of mind for consumers is harder than ever using traditional call-and-collect methods considering stricter compliance regulations and the fact that 94% of unidentified calls go unanswered. 

Simply adding email into the communication mix often isn’t enough, and there’s a lot that goes on between hitting “send” and reaching the inbox. For your business to improve performance using digital debt collection, you need a partner with the right expertise. 

Let’s look at six key questions to ask your business partners about email deliverability in debt collection, why each question is important, and how TrueAccord measures up.

1) What is Their Primary Method of Communication in Digital Debt Collection?

Why It Matters
The success of traditional call-and-collect methods are waning compared to modern digital engagement due to more consumers preferring digital communications, declining right-party contact rates, and increasing compliance restrictions. 

This notion is further proven by recent surveys showing that roughly 40% of consumers prefer to be contacted by email first. And honoring a consumer’s preferences in digital debt collection pays off. In fact, contacting a customer through their preferred channel first can lead to a 10% increase in their payments.

How TrueAccord Measures Up
TrueAccord is a digital first, omnichannel debt collection agency—and has been a leader in digital consumer engagement. The company believes that digital debt collection is a financial service, and needs to cater to the needs of consumers.

2) 2) How Long Have They Used Email as a Form of Communication?

Why It Matters
Many debt collection providers have been slow to adopt digital communication as part of their consumer outreach, and even those who have integrated digital are still refining strategies for optimal outcomes. By choosing a partner who has a history of refining debt recovery email performance, your business will be able to increase collections with strategies that honor consumer preferences.

How TrueAccord Measures Up
From the start of the company in 2013, TrueAccord’s approach to consumer engagement has been digital-first. This notion continues to grow into a robust omni-channel operation through machine learning that’s driven by data from 40 million customer engagements and counting.

3) What is Their Debt Collection Email Delivery Rate?

Why It Matters
Email Delivery Rate refers to the successful transmission of an email from the sender to the recipient’s mail server, measured by emails delivered divided by the number of emails sent. Digital debt collection partners that can achieve a high rate gives your business confidence that communications are getting in front of delinquent customers.

How TrueAccord Measures Up
TrueAccord has a 99% email delivery rate, compared to the average email delivery rate of approximately 90%. It’s one of the main metrics that separates debt recovery email performance of TrueAccord services from the competition.

4) What is Their Email Deliverability Rate?

Why It Matters
Successful email delivery doesn’t mean that it actually makes it into the recipient’s inbox. Deliverability divides how many emails reach the recipient’s inbox, as opposed to their spam folder, by the total number of emails sent. Your domain reputation also has a big impact on email deliverability in debt collection. The better your email reputation, the less likely your communications are to end up in spam folders.

How TrueAccord Measures Up
TrueAccord has a 95% email deliverability rate, compared to the worldwide average of 84.8%.

5) Do They Measure Open Rates and/or Click Rates?

Why It Matters
Measuring open rates (percentage of recipients who opened your email) and click-through rates (percentage of those who clicked on a link in the email) play a dominant role in understanding which communications are resonating with recipients and which are not. With accurate reporting of these crucial debt recovery email performance metrics, your business will be better positioned to optimize your collections strategy.

How TrueAccord Measures Up
TrueAccord has a total open rate 55.19% and total click rate 1.56%, compared to the average industry total open rate of 27.76% and click rate of 1.3%.

6) How Do They Make Adjustments When Email Deliverability and/or Delivery Rates Fluctuate?

Why It Matters
Email delivery and deliverability rates will fluctuate, but how a provider responds and adjusts to these changes is crucial to keeping the rates as high as possible. Every business has unique variables that affect these metrics. By leveraging machine-learning and consumer data, businesses have a better opportunity to keep collection performance high even during times of fluctuation.

How TrueAccord Measures Up
TrueAccord’s dedicated email and deliverability experts proactively monitor and make adjustments, along with using our patented machine learning engine, HeartBeat. This technology helps to improve debt recovery email performance by optimizing communication engagement over time.

Ready to Reach Optimal Consumer Engagement in Your Debt Collection Operations?

Is your business ready to improve its digital debt collection strategy? Start by scheduling a consultation to learn more about what influences email delivery and deliverability rates and how TrueAccord consistently performs above the rest. Our email and deliverability experts are happy to talk through how your debt recovery email performance can be improved. 

Get Started Now»»

Core Components for a Successful Email Program in Debt Collection

By on September 12th, 2023 in Product and Technology, Customer Experience
Core Components Header

If your business and collection partners aren’t utilizing email in your debt recovery strategy, you’re leaving vital engagement opportunities (and potential collections) on the table. There are plenty of reasons why digital communications are the way to go, but reaching out through email is especially important in collections.

Surveys show that 59.5% of consumers prefer email as their first choice for communication, and 14% of bill-payers prioritize payments that offer lower-friction payment experiences, which increases to 23% for millennials specifically. Considering this, it shouldn’t come as a surprise that courts have actually ruled that “an email is less intrusive than a phone call” for debt collection.

But what makes a successful email program when it comes to connecting with delinquent accounts? Whether your business is handling collections in-house or are looking at working with a third party, your operations should be confident that you have these core components covered.

Core Components for a Successful Email Program

While adding email into the communication channel mix is critical, it is the set up, execution, and continued optimization of that email program that can actually make a difference when it comes to consumer engagement. There are many elements to a successful email strategy, but here are three of the core components that we’ll focus on:

Infrastructure, Data, and Content

core components

All 3 are required for a successful email program—each one relies on the other two to create a high performing program.

Let’s take a look at why each of these is important and the risks that can occur without each component in place.

INFRASTRUCTURE

The infrastructure an email program is built on has many components itself: Mail Servers, Mailbox Providers, Internet Service Providers (ISPs), Email service providers (ESPs), and more. How these components are set up and work together influences sender reputation, which in turn influences email delivery rates. You can learn more about these different pieces in our blog focusing on the The (Hidden) Anatomy of Email here»»

While infrastructure can admittedly be complex, the risks your operation runs without a sound infrastructure are clear and quite consequential, including having your emails blocked, deferred or delayed delivery, or winding up lost in the recipient’s spam folder.

infrastructure

DATA

In today’s digital world, data is everywhere—but how you harness that data can make or break your email program (and even get you into hot water if you or your collections partner are not following all the necessary compliance regulations around data privacy and protection). Understanding data helps intelligently influence an email program, especially when focusing on email engagement metrics such as:

  • Opens
  • Clicks
  • Unsubscribes
  • Spam complaints
  • Hard Bounces
  • Spam traps

But without quality data analyzed appropriately, your emails could result in consumer complaints, hard bounces, falling into spam traps, not to mention negatively impacting all the engagement metrics listed above.

data

CONTENT

Solid infrastructure and reliable data are essential in any email program, but when it comes to debt collection, content can be the tipping point between a consumer committing to repayment or ignoring the outreach altogether—or even reporting your communications as spam or harassment.

From subject lines to your call-to-action (CTAs), sending the right message to your customers is crucial. Without compelling content you miss opportunities to capture consumers attention resulting in fewer opens, fewer clicks, or even pushing consumer perception in the wrong direction. If you lose your customers’ trust, you’re most likely going to lose the chance to recover their debt.

content

Successful Email Engagement Can Boost Debt Recovery

Studies have shown that engaging consumers through digital methods can increase resolution rates by as much as 25%. But if your digital efforts are missing any of the core components we just covered above, it doesn’t matter if your collection strategy includes email—your operations are going to be missing recovery opportunities.

Ready to step up your engagement with better email strategies? Schedule a consultation to get started»»

Between Hitting “Send” and Reaching the Inbox: The (Hidden) Anatomy of Email

By on August 15th, 2023 in Product and Technology
Hidden Anatomy Blog

When it comes to reaching consumers, it’s no secret that email has surpassed phone calls as the preferred method of communication. In fact, 59.5% of consumers prefer email as their first choice for communication.

But just because your business sends emails to consumers doesn’t mean that your messages make it to their inbox. And if that email never reaches the intended recipient, it doesn’t matter what that customer’s preferred method of communication may be.

There are more factors than you may realize that go into whether or not your email reaches the consumer’s inbox, so let’s look at the hidden anatomy of email and the factors that influence where your emails end up.

What’s the Difference Between Mail Servers, Mailbox Providers, ISPs, and ESPs?

Before we look at what happens when you hit “send” on that email, it’s important to identify some of the key components that operate behind the scenes to get your message from point A to point B.

  • Mail Server: A mail server (also known as a mail transfer agent or MTA) is an application that receives incoming email from the sender and forwards outgoing messages for delivery to the recipient.
  • Mailbox Provider: A mailbox provider provides email hosting and implements email servers to send, receive, accept, and store email for the recipient.
  • ISPs: Internet Service Providers (ISPs) provide internet. Although ISPs can provide email services, separate ESPs are often used for business email operations—but ISPs play a major role in email delivery and landing in the recipient’s inbox.
  • ESPs: Email service providers (ESPs) are a service that enables businesses to send emails and email campaigns to a list of subscribers.

How Does Email Actually Work?

When you hit the “send” button, your ESP sends the email to the recipient’s mail server through various protocols such as SMTP (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol). The delivery process involves establishing a connection with the recipient’s mail server, transferring the email content, and receiving a response indicating whether the email was accepted or rejected by the mailbox provider.

Several key factors play into whether an email gets tagged in spam or junk or filtered into “social” or “promotion” categories.

  • Mailbox providers and anti-spam filters make inbox placement decisions based on a 30-day rolling history of sender reputation metrics
  • Inbox placement is based on the subscriber’s interaction, regardless of your business model
  • All types of emails are subject to the same filtering, regardless of content

At TrueAccord, every time we send an email our email providers notify us of events like delivered, open, click, hard bounce (such as an email being sent to an invalid or nonexistent email address), soft bounce (typically an indicator of a temporary technical issue on the recipients’ end), and spam complaints.

In the case of bounces, TrueAccord stores that data and categorizes it as not delivered. Emails that result in a soft bounce are temporary bounces and could get delivered within 72 hours. For hard bounces, we will not send to those again—or it severely hurts our reputation among ESPs and ISPs. For Regulation F compliance when delivering disclosures electronically, debt collectors are required to monitor for deliverability. TrueAccord presumes that any hard bounce or undelivered soft-bounce (one that is not delivered after 72 hours of the first soft bounce) has not been delivered.

Why are ISPs So Selective?

the ISPs are selective on what emails get accepted and which actually reach the inbox. But there are three key initiatives ISPs consider:

  • To protect email account owners from:
  • Spam
  • Scams
  • Poor experience
  • To protect and prioritize company resources:
  • Limited email engines i.e. mail servers
  • Limited bandwidth
  • Limited personnel or internal expertise
  • To continue driving revenue:
  • Lower email interaction reduces ad impressions and revenue
  • Too many emails can lead to account abandonment from subscribers

Best Practices to Get Your Emails Delivered

Understanding the different components of email, how it actually works, and the selective filters in place to protect consumers are all important to a successful email program. Now let’s look at several best practices to follow:

  • Build and maintain a positive sender reputation with ISPs and ESPs
  • Ensure good email list hygiene
  • Send to actively engaged subscribers
  • Maintain consistent volume and cadence (avoid spikes)
  • Avoid spammy subject lines
  • Develop valuable content that would engage subscribers

While many of these best practices may seem like no-brainers, achieving them can take more skill and effort than most businesses expect. Each of these contribute to email delivery rates and more importantly, deliverability to recipients’ inboxes—key drivers towards consumer engagement and your bottom line.

Ready to step up your engagement with better email strategies? Schedule a consultation to get started »»