With inflation at a 40-year high and the economic ramifications of the COVID-19 pandemic still looming, many people are falling into delinquency, making revamping outdated debt collection practices a higher priority for financial institutions than ever.

In their recent webinar, The ROI on Transforming Credit and Lending Customer Outreach, Perficient’s Byron Gifford and Scott Albahary discussed tried and true debt collecting methods, why they’re important, and how financial services institutions can implement these tactics into their debt collection practices.

Here are five takeaways from the webinar:

Customer contact engagement preferences have shifted​ – but practices have not necessarily followed suit. Sixty six percent of lender-initiated contacts are made through traditional channels such as phone calls and letters, and only 7% of debt collectors initiate contact via text and/or mobile push, even though many customers now deem mobile as their preferred way to be contacted.
How a financial institution treats its customers when performing debt collections will either solidify its relationships with customers or prompt customers to use a different provider. Much emphasis should be placed on the language used when communicating with customers – empathetic, straightforward language and a kind tone go a long way in debt collection service communications.
Financial institutions must perform both quantitative and qualitative analyses to gain the best understanding of their customer demographics. This research should be used to create customer personas.
A customer persona is an archetype of a customer that is representative of a large segmentation of your customer base. Developing a portfolio of customer personas is key in improving and elevating the overall customer experience because it provides insight into how best to serve various types of customers.
To thoroughly optimize your debt collections practices in a withstanding way, consistent production execution and penetration of the workflow must occur throughout the delinquency lifecycle.

Interested in learning more? Check out the webinar here or watch it below: