How Using Predictive Dialer Software for Accounts Receivable Increases Settled Accounts

Posted by Ahmed Macklai on December, 9 2019 8:29 pm

Working in debt collection means contacting people who don’t want to be contacted. Whether people are actively avoiding their debts or have simply forgotten them, reminding them that they owe your company or one that you are partnering with money is bound to elicit a reaction. Too often, that reaction is a negative one.

However, that doesn’t mean that debt collection efforts can’t be successful. In this industry, call quantity rules even over quality. This makes predictive dialer software for accounts receivable a natural choice.

Here’s more about why:

Why is Debt Collection Such a Complicated Field?

The very nature of debt collection is easy to see as unpleasant. Agents have to contact people who are already in debt and ask them to repay those debts. Oftentimes, those consumers are well aware of their outstanding debt and aren’t in any position or mood to repay them. Unfortunately, that is only the beginning of the problems associated with debt collection.

Another issue with working in the accounts receivable field is that consumers are often unpleasant - or downright rude - upon being contacted. This can be frustrating and discouraging for agents, especially when making many calls each day of the same nature. Of those calls, an overwhelming percentage are displeased with the reason for being contacted.

Finally, debt collection can feel like a waste of time. Many people who agents have to contact are unable to repay their debts, and many others are not willing to. Because of this, a large fraction of the calls placed by debt collections agents either go unanswered or are met with a negative response. The chances that you will receive a positive response - much less actually collect on outstanding debts as a result of your outreach efforts - is typically somewhere between slim and none.

How Can Predictive Dialer Software for Accounts Receivable Change This?

So, debt collection isn’t always a pleasant experience. It also isn’t always a fruitful one. However, predictive dialer software for accounts receivable can turn this trend around.

Imagine taking some of the burden off of your poor, stressed call center agents. If you could do so, how would you go about it? For many call center management team members, their answer would be that they would offer an easier, quicker way to make calls from start to finish. With the volume of calls being made in a debt collection contact center every day, that alone would make a tremendous and meaningful difference for overworked and overwhelmed agents.

There is where predictive dialers come in. This technology approaches call simplification from several angels. First, it makes dialing simpler. That may not sound like much, but by saving your agents a few seconds for each call, you can realize substantial savings over time. Just think about how many agents your center has on staff and how quickly those few seconds will multiply!

The second way that predictive dialing saves your agents time and trouble is by keeping them from wasting their time on dead phone lines. This software can determine what is going on with the consumer on the other end of the line - or the lack of consumer, in many cases. If a line is sent to voicemail, is disconnected, receives a busy signal, or simply goes unanswered, the software recognizes this and moves onto the next call seamlessly and swiftly. This prevents your agents from wasting their time on phone lines that will never get answered - and moves them on to calls that just might.

Perhaps one of the biggest benefits of using predictive dialers in your debt collection efforts is that they massively enhance agent productivity. What does that mean in the word of accounts receivable? It means that agents are making a lot more calls.

Statistically speaking, the more calls your agents are making, the more accounts you are going to see a positive return on. While the actual percentage of closed accounts or payments plans that are set up as a result of calls made will likely remain close to the same, the actual number is bound to increase with the sharp increase in the number of calls made. Simply put, making more calls means getting more debts paid - and that’s a great thing for a debt collection call center.

How Predictive Dialers Do What They Do - and Where to Get Them

Now that you see how effective predictive dialer software for accounts receivable can be, you may be wondering exactly how these dialers work - and where you can get your hands on the software for your own facility.

Predictive dialers are named for the fact that they effectively predict the time that it takes for agents to conclude calls with consumers. In doing so, the software allows for a steady stream of calls to be supplied to agents. Very little time is wasted since agents don’t have to manually dial every call they make - and they are automatically connected with the next call upon wrapping up the first.

The algorithm that this software uses utilizes call metrics to predict how long it should take an agent to finish a call. In doing so, predictive dialer software for accounts receivable enhances agent utilization, which makes the use of payroll more effective and your center more productive overall.

The great thing about predictive dialing technology is that it is very common - and therefore widely available. In this day and age of automation and a heavy reliance on technology, you can find predictive and other automated dialers anywhere that you currently shop for your call center software solutions.

For more information on using predictive dialer software for accounts receivable and how you can implement it to increase the success of your debt collection efforts, contact the experts at ChaseData. As the industry leader in software and solutions, ChaseData can help you choose the right outbound dialing software and seamlessly integrate it into your current operations. For more information on streamlining and simplifying your collections process with a top-notch dialer, give us a call today!

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