Collection strategy to optimize costs and Customer Care
For medium- and large-sized businesses, maintaining a healthy cash flow is as vital as growing sales. Collections are crucial for companies, since, according to Solunion Mexico, a company specializing in credit insurance and commercial risk management, eight out of ten businesses face non-payment issues from their customers. However, managing collections internally can become a costly challenge that distracts key teams from their primary focus and, if not handled carefully, can even damage customer relationships.
A good option for companies is to outsource the process to a contact center BPO that offers collection services. This, in addition to representing significant savings, can also improve CX (as we always remember, it refers to customer experience) by leaving something as delicate and crucial as payment requests in the hands of teams with years of experience, keeping the business relationship intact (or even strengthened).
Why outsource collections?
Reduction of operating costs
Hiring, training, and maintaining an internal collections team involves high fixed costs in payroll, infrastructure, supervision, and technology. The outsourcing company Cloudstaff indicates that by outsourcing collections services, companies can reduce costs by up to 60%. This frees up resources that can be reinvested in strategic areas of the business.
With call center outsourcing , companies only pay for the services used, adapting the volume of calls or transactions according to the overdue portfolio and business cycles, without having to assume fixed charges during low periods, which also brings us to the next point:
Immediate scalability
Collection campaigns often experience seasonal peaks (due to fiscal year deadlines, payment deadlines, or business strategies). A collection contact center allows you to scale your team almost immediately, without downtime or delays due to internal hiring.
Improvement in debt recovery rate
Specialized collection contact centers have trained agents and advanced technologies that increase the efficiency of payment collection. This translates into a significant improvement in the debt recovery rate, strengthening the company’s cash flow.
Regulatory compliance and legal risk reduction
Professional debt collection agencies are aware of current regulations, ensuring that their transactions are carried out ethically and legally. This minimizes the risk of penalties and protects the company’s reputation.
Can you charge without damaging the customer relationship?
A common mistake is to think of collections solely as a combination of pressure and automated reminders. In reality, it’s an extension of customer service. A proper approach prioritizes respect, clarity, and empathy, even creating opportunities to strengthen the bond with the customer.
Soft collection: debt collection with a human approach. This strategy prioritizes empathy, respectful communication, and collaboration with the customer to resolve outstanding debts, rather than resorting to coercive or threatening methods. According to an Experian article, adopting a customer-centric approach to debt collection improves customer experience and can increase debt recovery rates as well as strengthen long-term customer relationships.
Implementing such a strategy involves understanding each customer’s individual circumstances, offering flexible payment solutions, and maintaining open and transparent communication. This approach also preserves the company’s reputation and fosters customer loyalty.
Time is money: the urgency to collect within 90 days
Soft collection is recommended for recently overdue payments or just the last payment in progress, as there is a critical principle in accounts receivable management: the longer a past-due payment is delayed, the lower the probability of recovering it. In fact, in the United States, the American Collector Association indicates that the probability of collection decreases by 51.3% once the invoice is over six months past due and falls to 21.4% after one year. Hence the importance of establishing preventive collection strategies, and what better way to do so than with a company that knows how to implement them.
Specific advantages of hiring a customer service outsourcing service for collections
- Flexible scheduling: CallFasst offers flexible, flexible operations tailored to the needs of the portfolio, significantly improving contact rates.
- Specialized personnel: Nearly a quarter of a century in the industry, training agents not only to collect payments, but also to answer questions, resolve objections, and generate agreements in a single contact.
- Clear monitoring and reporting : Provides insight into the status of the portfolio and the effectiveness of each campaign, facilitating strategic decisions.
- Cultural and time zone proximity: As a nearshore call center BPO , CallFasst can serve clients in Mexico, the United States, and Latin America, aligning languages, idioms, and time zones.
Earn well, care better
It seems like only yesterday we were talking about innovations in collection systems on this blog, and now, five years later, we can say that we continue to be one of the companies that overcame the pandemic, remaining a reliable contact center option for collections . From the above, we might deduce that outsourcing collections is a matter of costs, but in reality, it’s more than that: it’s about ensuring your customer continues to feel valued, even when reminded of a debt.
With CallFasst, your company gains an expert partner in recovering past-due loans, protecting cash flow, and, at the same time, strengthening your customers’ trust in your brand.