Are we entering the Age of the Cell Phone?

Author:  Bob Kelly, Senior Vice President of The PerformanceEdge Group at Aspect

A lot of people in the U.S., myself included, use their cell phones pretty extensively on a daily basis. And, some have even ditched their land line – almost 15 percent of U.S. households are using cell phone service exclusively .  Plus, when you focus on younger consumers that number rises significantly, with about 33 percent of 18 to 29 year olds saying they currently use only a cell phone or the Internet to make phone calls.

The shift from landline to mobile phone is beginning to have ramifications on U.S.-based organizations that make their livelihood connecting with consumers via telephone. As a result, we’re seeing credit card and mortgage companies change their policies and accept cell phones as primary contact numbers for applications. They’re also amending their terms and conditions for existing accounts so they are able to legally contact their customers via cell phone for collections purposes.

But, are companies tailoring their communications strategies and technologies to account for cell phone usage?  If not, they should be! Why?  Because “contact-ability” is different at different times of day for every phone number listed on an account, and this varies by consumer. For instance, some people carry their cell phones with them at all times and have them on virtually 24 hours a day, seven days a week.  Obviously, the best way to reach these customers is via cell. Others carry their personal cell phones in the morning, the evening, and on weekends, but turn them off between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. It might be easiest to reach these customers on a business phone number during the work day, and on a cell phone after 5 p.m.

By using the right technology, companies can sort customer records by type of phone number, and automatically score the probability of making contact at certain times of day at specific destinations versus answering machine or no contact at all. Best Time to Call applications combined with outbound dialers, for example, can track the probability of successful contact on multiple numbers on each account, regardless of whether they are cell or landline numbers. It then identifies the optimal phone number to call, based on the time of day the campaign is being run and the phone availability within the types of contact numbers. In the end, employing this type of technology means that companies have to make fewer call attempts while achieving better results.

Let’s face it. Increased cell phone usage is already adding another variant to strategies of who companies call, when they call, and what resources they should apply. Are you prepared to deal with the rising number of mobile phone-faithful?

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Delinquencies are Rising – How is Your Collections Center Keeping Up?

Author:  Allyson Boudousquie, Director, Business Process Marketing at Aspect

Everywhere you look, there are stories about rising delinquencies in the United States.  A recently released report from the Mortgage Bankers Association says that eight percent of mortgages are delinquent – the highest rate of delinquency ever recorded in the survey, which began in 1972.  Not so long ago, American Express said that about four percent of their loans were at least 30 days late.  And, according to Equifax, the home equity line of credit delinquency rates just made their largest jump in 10 years.

An economy in peril means that your collections contact center is busier than it has ever been and is most likely struggling to handle the workload.  Don’t pull your hair out yet!  Before you do that, take a good look at the tools you have in place and see how your center can use them to work harder, smarter, and improve your right party contacts and enhance dollars collected.

For example, is it possible for you to take some of the burden off your agents? Maybe you can use your technology to segment your debtors according to risk level.  If you have low-risk or debtors on payment plans who just need simple payment reminders, you can use outbound self-service capabilities to proactively reach out to these customers.  With a targeted automated message, you can remind them of the impending due date and give them the immediate choice to either pay by phone or speak to an agent.  By taking this approach, you can more effectively absorb increased business volumes, while freeing up your collections agents to work on riskier accounts.

The next thing to consider is how successful your center has been when it comes to actually making contact with your more frequent debtors. It’s much easier to work out payment plans when you talk to your customers, rather than leave them messages.  If you aren’t already doing so, you can leverage your outbound dialing and best time to call capabilities to initiate phone calls to debtors at the times and places they are most likely to be reached. The odds are that it will help you to drastically increase your collections yield.

Finally, don’t underestimate the value of a well-managed work force. Make sure you’re using workforce management capabilities to optimally schedule your outbound and blended resources.  After all, it doesn’t help your budget or your bottom line if you’ve got agents sitting around twiddling their thumbs, or if your customers are calling you back, but hanging up because your hold time is too long and/or they have to be transferred to a collector that can handle their account

Segmenting debtors, improving proactive outreach and self-service capabilities, engaging best time to call practices and enhancing your use of workforce management are only some of the things you can do to immediately improve the performance of your collections center.  Has your organization developed any best practices or innovative processes to improving debt collection?

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Using Politics as a Model for Business – Did I Really Say That?

Author:  Kevin Schwartz, Executive Vice President, Aspect Global Professional Services

President Obama’s 2008 presidential race transformed U.S. politics as we know it. His staffers and volunteers used technology in innovative and interesting ways to communicate with each other, but perhaps even more importantly, to engage supporters in the outside world. In doing so, they gave us a good feel for what is really possible – for how organizations can use the power of Web 2.0 to transform the way they conduct business, and to gain a competitive edge.

Sure, the Obama campaign used traditional communication methods, such as calling constituents and visiting their homes in-person, but they also embraced technologies that had never before been used in a presidential campaign – largely because many of these technologies hadn’t previously existed or formerly reached the masses.  The campaign focused heavily on text messaging and email, and their unprecedented use of the Internet allowed them to connect with millions of constituents via social media sites, such as MySpace and Facebook, and address their feedback in real-time. 

Whether you were an Obama supporter or not, it’s easy to agree that the “2008 Race for the White House” presented a great case study for Enterprise Transformation, which is about changing the way businesses communicate and collaborate primarily with external constituencies.   If you recall my previous blogs  on the other three  phases of the journey,  Enterprise Transformation is the fourth phase is the final stop on the UC Journey. It is also one of the least visited, to date. 

We are, however, starting to see a few forward-thinking companies accelerate the identification of new products, services and channels by using unified communications and collaboration to engage an ecosystem of customers and partners. For example, some organizations are setting up Web sites to ask customers to vote for favorite promotions or products, and creating online communities through social networking Web sites for consumers to share their experiences. They’re automatically directing the feedback they receive via these channels to the right internal resources and using it to more quickly address concerns or develop new products. In these cases, product managers are instantaneously receiving customer comments, directing them via IM or email to pertinent internal and external partners, and in pressing situations launching immediate, live meetings to discuss the feedback.  These improved processes are enabling companies to automate a lot of what used to be onerous and time consuming, and allowing them to use technology to expedite products fixes, feature adds, and new product delivery.

Reaching this final phase of the UC Journey can help you uncover new capabilities that can bring you good fortune in the form of new business processes and increased business value.  Are you ready to become one of these leading-edge companies?

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