Leveraging technology to address operational challenges and customer pain points
Financial institutions face challenges in debt collections given limited digitalization, scarcity of experienced agents, increasing delinquent accounts, and rigid, templatized strategies. Income and job loss due to the COVID-19 pandemic will further worsen the situation – all of which could well result in a liquidity crunch. Banks will therefore need to revamp their debt collection strategy by incorporating technology tools. The way forward lies in using virtual agents, artificial intelligence (AI) backed automation, and advanced analytics in debt collection.
Since debt collection is a human centric function, we believe that banks must define a hybrid debt collection strategy with the right mix of human and virtual agents – human agents to handle sensitive interactions and virtual agents to manage basic functions and act as collectors’ digital assistants. A shift to digital in collections will empower banks to:
- Improve the quality of customer interactions
- Deliver a frictionless, superior experience
- Facilitate debt collection compliance
- Enable personalized collection strategies