Forecasting the future of collection technology is no easy task. However, experience and the desire of professionals in the industry will help shape what tools will be created to encourage the collection of debt. Leaders of the industry’s most innovative agencies weighed in to describe their hopes for the future of collection technology.
American Profit Recovery
Jeff DiMatteo - President
We are investing our resources here at American Profit Recovery into the commitment of having one flexible platform in which we can manage our debtor relations, client relations, sales prospecting, both trust and corporate accounting and compliance. This database will also function as the database for our client portal. We feel this platform will provide a better user experience for everyone as well as give our management team better ways to increase productivity.
Americollect
Kenlyn T. Gretz - President and CEO
Video communication with consumers. I think consumers need to see how many ridiculously nice people are in the collection industry. Of course, we first need the BCFP to help us with the modernization of the FDCPA. I think this industry will grow so quickly with technology if only we have the protection with an updated FDCPA, but we also need to “respect” technology.
CACi
Roger D. Weiss - President
We intend to continue the development of our coaching analytics by integrating management alerts that will text or email a manager when the consumer or the collector says a specific word or phrase. Working with Balto, we are discussing how to incorporate vocal analysis into our speech analytics engine. I want to see continued development in preferred consumer communication channels. Convenience and speed are paramount to successful consumer interactions today, and is only gaining momentum.
CBC, LLC
Marc A. Carter - President
A wish list of future technological innovations would include: 1. Automated dispute registration with the credit bureaus for real-time accuracy when a debtor disputes a debt through our Ibot or through voice recognition of our existing software platform Quantrax, 2. Capture of social media identification at patient registration onsite with provider and capability to locate debtors through such media.
CBE Companies, Inc.
Tom Penaluna - Chairman & CEO
Because of the expense pressures most of our clients are experiencing today we believe the future of debt collections must include machine learning or artificial intelligence solutions to help reduce costs, increase collection yields and improve data security.
Credit Bureau Services, LLC
Debbie Frank - CEO
I would love to see the entire collection process be automated through technology. I envision being able to send a text message or email explaining payment options with a link to our website (also handling special cases such as bankruptcy or attorney representation). This is how modern consumers want to communicate. Providing them their balance, payment options and how to get it taken care of: simple and at their convenience.
Credit Collection Partners
Rick Bonitzer - President
Perhaps the most impactful topic of our industry is the whole “robocall” subject. Specific to the question, I’m very much interested in seeing how the program known as STIR/SHAKEN develops. Google FCC STIR/SHAKEN to get brought up to speed. The idea here is to attach a certificate of authenticity to every phone call (a kind of digital signature) to prevent caller ID spoofing.
MRS
Jeff Freedman and Saul Freedman - CEO/Principal
Artificial intelligence already plays a role in our company, particularly with our voice activated IVR. We believe (more than just hope) however, that AI will continue to evolve and play an even more significant role in all of our digital communication channels in the future. Many more complex functions will be handled by AI to the benefit of customers ensuring accurate, consistent, and timely answers to questions/requests as well as assistance in providing workable solutions to resolving their past-due accounts.
Southern Oregon Credit Service
Brian Watkins - President
The next phase of this project will allow almost all of our legal documents we create to go directly to our letter vendor and out in certified mail without having to print in-house, plus we eliminate the middle-man vendor between us and the USPS tracking system. This may not sound like much, but we have a significant legal environment and print thousands of legal documents and ferry them between lawyers and the court and process servers – that will all be done electronically soon.
State Collection Service, Inc.
Tom Haag - Chairman/CEO
We are constantly looking for ways to improve and we know technology can play a big role in this. In the market today, there are significant advancements occurring in artificial intelligence and machine learning, which may allow us to take advantage of automation. We also anticipate future enhancements to the speech analytics and gamification applications we currently utilize that will make us even more efficient and effective for our clients and their patients.