Compelling conversations: Debt Collections Call Centres find value in speech analytics

By Ashley Clayton*

Debt recovery is big business with one in three consumers having pastdue payments in collections totalling trillions of dollars for mortgages, car loans, credit cards and medical bills. With no end in sight and people carrying more debt each year, debt collections call centres and agencies have their work cut out for them.

Collections organisations must maintain a balancing act between increasing recovery rates and staying compliant with industry regulations to avoid hefty fines as well as improve the consumer experience. In recent years, many companies have turned to Speech Analytics help maximise recovery and regulatory compliance.

Speech Analytics Defined

Speech Analytics refers to the technology that transcribes speech into data. It offers a detailed examination of both recorded and live conversations. In the context of the collections call centre, these conversations happen between agents and customers, clients or patients. It generates data on words used, sentiment and outcomes, and can uncover trends and identify issues so that companies can address them quickly. This becomes quite important to businesses, as 81% of companies say they compete solely based on customer experience.

It’s through conversations that companies can learn about customer preferences and attitudes, which can be useful in refining the overall customer experience. Speech Analytics can go even deeper to help determine the moment when an agent gets the promise to pay or resolves an issue, or when the customer loses interest. A simple review of the conversations that recover funds, turn an unhappy customer into a happy one, or lose a customer can lead to script changes or coaching moments that can improve future customer outcomes.

In addition, Speech Analytics provides a more holistic view of how customers are feeling. Through sentiment analysis, it can determine whether customers are happy, angry or indifferent. Sentiment analysis evaluates the language used, as well as voice inflections (volume), the rate of speech, the amount of stress in their voice, and any changes. This helps determines overall attitudes and opinions. By doing so, companies can quickly adapt to improve messaging, products, services and processes that can result in a better customer experience.

Reduce Compliance Risk and Improve the Consumer Experience

Prior to speech analytics, call centre managers would typically select a number of calls at random to monitor quality. This time-intensive practice was inefficient and, although it may have identified some regulatory issues, it was impossible to know how pervasive these infractions were. Post-call Speech Analytics can monitor and analyse every interaction that debt collection agents have with consumers. It allows management to categorise conversations and monitor for specific language that could expose companies to compliance risk and potential litigation.

In addition to identifying specific agents with compliance issues, speech analytics provides trends information across agent populations “Real-time Speech Analytics (RTSA) can monitor live interactions whilst they occur and provide immediate feedback based on what is happening on the call. It acts as a virtual coaching partner for each agent by triggering alerts when certain phrases are detected (or not detected).”

so that training and coaching can be implemented quickly. It can also uncover successful techniques to ensure compelling conversations that help secure payments. These best practices can then be shared with all agents to improve debt recovery, overall agent performance and consumer satisfaction.

Real-time Speech Analytics (RTSA) can monitor live interactions whilst they occur and provide immediate feedback based on what is happening on the call. It acts as a virtual coaching partner for each agent by triggering alerts when certain phrases are detected (or not detected). Reminders and suggestions are then pushed to the agent to provide next-best action guidance. RTSA can even notify managers so that they can intervene when an agent needs assistance. ➤

Boost Recovery Rates and Expedite Dispute Settlements

When collection agents work more efficiently, they can get more done each day. And when agents are more productive and processes are optimised, contact centres can reduce operating costs.

By automatically monitoring all calls, debt collections call centres can gain the insights necessary to deliver a positive consumer experience. Most consumers want to pay off their debt, they’ve just gotten themselves in a bind and don’t see a way out. By better understanding their situation and showing empathy, collections agents can help them chart a path to pay off what they owe. Both the consumers they collect from and the company they are collecting for benefit.

Another advantage of speech analytics for debt collections is that it provides data to expedite and settle disputes if there is a compliance hearing. Having the recording is helpful, but being able to leverage speech analytics to pinpoint the “Automated monitoring allows for fast identification of system and process gaps so that they can be fixed quickly. Addressing issues promptly can help decrease the cost of each conversation by reducing silence, handle time, hold time, call transfers and escalations.”

exact place in the conversation that supports the company’s position is even better.

Here are some other benefits of Speech Analytics in the Collections call centre: l Automated monitoring allows for fast identification of system and process gaps so that they can be fixed quickly. Addressing issues promptly can help decrease the cost of each conversation by reducing silence, handle time, hold time, call transfers and escalations. l Putting the right information in front of the right agent at the right time. This enables agents to reduce repeat calls and l unnecessary callbacks as well as increase first contact resolution rates so that they can move on to the next customer, faster. Analysing 100% of calls takes a deep dive into all aspects of every call to improve quality assurance. It can monitor script compliance to ensure that agents are using the proper greeting, identifying and verifying the caller correctly, engaging with the customer and showing empathy, providing any required legal or disclosure information and using the right closing. Management can quickly conduct searches to uncover trends across groups and instances where specific

l agents need more training and coaching. By automating this process, managers save hours and hours each week on manual QA of a subset on conversations, which can reduce QA staff costs and allow contact centres to redirect these employees into other, more strategic roles. Reviewing what happens during every conversation helps companies identify the specific reasons customers may not be paying at a certain time. Looking at trend data can pinpoint the words commonly spoken and help determine strategies to address these reasons, create new payment options or programs, etc.

Improve Agent Performance

Speech Analytics automates the monitoring and scoring of agents, groups and supervisors. KPIs are automatically tracked and reported to show progress and achievement. Perpetual feedback leads to better trained agents that are motivated to continually improve their performance. They are also more highly engaged. According to Gallup, companies with engaged employees show a reduction in absenteeism of 41%, a 24% decrease in employee turnover, and an increase in productivity of 17%. Companies with a highly engaged workforce also achieve a 10% improvement in customer ratings and a 20% improvement in sales.

Speech Analytics also takes the subjectivity out of assessments by monitoring 100% of interactions. Speech Analytics eliminates personal bias, and provides a more complete evaluation. Instead of judging performance on a handful of calls, it captures all the good and the bad, detecting whether a “bad” day or call is just an anomaly, or a pervasive problem that needs to be addressed.

“Agent turnover continues to be a critical challenge for collection centres. The average cost of hiring and training a new agent, including lost opportunity and low productive costs, is estimated at 20% of an agent’s annual salary. ”

Here are some additional ways that insights from Speech Analytics can boost agent performance. l Gain a better understanding of what customers want before they are connected to an agent by gathering customer information with IVR. This helps route callers to the best agent and gives the agent the customer information they need to be more effective at addressing customer needs. l Monitor calls to uncover best practices that can be used in group training and coaching sessions. l Use insights from Speech Analytics to identify “most-asked” questions and develop FAQs or add to the

IVR menu to eliminate these calls altogether.

Reduce Agent Churn

Agent turnover continues to be a critical challenge for collection centres. The average cost of hiring and training a new agent, including lost opportunity and low productive costs, is estimated at 20% of an agent’s annual salary.

Speech Analytics can improve agent retention and lower new hire costs by identifying specific training and coaching opportunities. With insights from conversations, contact centre management can identify pervasive issues and hold training sessions on such topics as: how to best handle irate customers, showing empathy when appropriate, effective dialogue for customer engagement and best practices for closing the sale.

Speech Analytics also improves agent confidence, makes them more successful, and helps them feel good about the work they do. Companies can also monitor agent attitude with Speech Analytics, to identify when agents are disengaged or frustrated. Supervisors can coach these agents to further discuss their concerns and offer guidance to get them back on track.

Tap into Vital Business Intelligence

There are many reasons why speech analytics has become an integral solution for debt collections call centres and debt recovery agencies. It can dramatically improve adherence to regulatory compliance rules, reducing and even virtually eliminating risk of litigation. It helps guide agents through challenging conversations, accelerates training and provides quick access to business intelligence that is vital for understanding how to improve agents’ performance and the consumer experience.

*Ashley Clayton Business Manager Noble Systems Australia T: +61 3 9008 1704 M: +61 427 303 870 E: aclayton@noblesystems.com