Collections Post-Pandemic: Analytics & Automated Communications

In previous blog posts, I described the challenges collection organizations have faced during the pandemic, and the use of automated communications as one of the ways to help enhance collections results. Another approach to enhance collection operations will be the use of predictive and prescriptive analytics to better determine and/or predict the situation of individual consumers. 

Coming out of the pandemic, organizations will need to be more efficient and more effective to meet the demands of both their inventories, consumers, and customers/constituents. Automated predictive and prescriptive analytics can significantly enhance an organization’s ability to collect debts in the least intrusive way possible. 

Coming out of the pandemic, many individuals and families will be financially struggling.  Analytics can help assign each consumer into the most appropriate treatment path for them.  For example, someone who cannot afford a payment can be contacted to identify appropriate deferrals, offers in compromise, or other strategies.  The analytical models can also be self-learning; as conditions change, the models can adjust their scores to provide the most appropriate treatment.

Prescriptive analytics can also be used to optimize your limited staffing, and direct cases to staff where the outcome is most affected by the assignment.  Rather than directing the most collectable cases to staff, it may be the case that fewer of the most collectable cases should be assigned to staff because they can be collected with an automated treatment.