How can collection companies provide good user experience?

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Regarding user experience, I wrote an article before:

Don’t spend all day studying private domains. User experience is the driving force for business growth.

Today, I would like to use another case study from Toutiao to help you better understand user experience.

Are you surprised when you see the title? In our impression, debt collection companies should be an industry with extremely poor user experience. How can they provide good user experience?

That's right.

01 Case

There is a debt collection company called True Accord. Translated into Chinese, it is called True Agreement. The rating on Google is as high as 4.8 points out of 5. And there are not only creditors but also many debtors who express their gratitude below. They say that thanks to the help of this company, they can get rid of their debt troubles. Some people even say that this may be the most popular in the history of the United States.

So, how did they do it?

First, in the pre-collection phase, that is, the reminder phase before the debt is officially due, they have specially developed a SaaS product called Retain to remind debtors. For example, banks and supermarkets can use it to remind debtors that they have to pay back the money in a few days. At the same time, consumers can also manage their bills on it. For example, set the repayment time, set self-service payment, etc. These are all relatively basic operations, so I won’t go into details here.

The real quality of this company lies in the later overdue stage. To put it bluntly, what should we do if the money is not paid on time? In our common impression, creditors and debtors seem to have a natural antagonistic relationship. If you don't pay back the money, I will have to be hard on you until you pay it back.

However, True Accord’s solution is just the opposite. I think their approach can be summarized in one sentence: instead of treating debtors as opponents, they treat debtors as users and provide debtors with a good collection experience.

You may ask, how can you give me a good experience when you come to collect the money? This is how True Accord does it. First, they designed a product called Recover. Many people find debt collectors annoying because they always call regardless of time and place. Especially when they receive such calls in front of friends and colleagues, or in meetings. However, this product never calls, but only sends emails. You see, at this point, at least the debtor's face is saved.

You may ask, how can it work just by email? What if I don't even open the email? There is a solution. First, the software will automatically calculate a more suitable email title based on the debtor's public information, such as age, gender, and amount owed.

For example, middle-aged people with decent jobs usually have elderly parents and young children to support, and they take debt seriously. So the subject line of the email to them should be more serious. For example, "You can do it! This debt is yours, and you must take responsibility. Here are the repayment plans we offer for you to choose from."

If the recipient is a young person, the tone will be more relaxed and humorous: "Hi, I'm your debtor, have you forgotten me?" or "I'm sitting here eating ice cream and listening to love songs because I feel like you're avoiding me." Because of these titles that are tailored to each person, Recover only sends three emails a week, but can achieve a 65% open rate. Compared to traditional debt collection services that send dozens of greetings a day, this is much more efficient.

And more importantly, the cost of sending mail by machine is very low. How low is it? Their standard for accepting orders is that as long as the debt is more than 3 US dollars, they will accept it. You see, this way, the scope of business has been expanded a lot.

However, you may say, even if I am willing to open the email, what if I really have no money? True Accord will find a solution for you. At this time, they will send someone to provide manual service. First, they will discuss repayment flexibility with you. To put it bluntly, you can bargain. Even give a little discount. You may say, what right does a collection company have to give a discount? Will the debtor agree? In fact, this is not difficult, because the commission charged by the collection company is very high, 20%-30% is common, and if it is a long-term arrears, it may even exceed 50%. In order to encourage the debtor to repay, they give up 5% of the profit, which is completely worth it. If the debtor is still not satisfied, True Accord will even ask the other party to propose a repayment plan, and the two parties will jointly discuss the best repayment plan.

From pre-debt management to personalized collection emails to flexible repayment services, True Accord's collection success rate is 50% higher than its peers.

02 Interpretation of Private Domain

OK, now that I have read the case, let me explain a few points from the perspective of private domain (email is actually also private domain):

1. The debt reminders and repayment management in the pre-collection stage are basic services. Although they are basic services, many domestic collection companies do not even have this because they have never thought about serving their customers (or even simply not treating them as customers, but as traffic).

Think about it, do you treat your customers as customers? Do you provide basic services?

2. In the collection process, considering that phone calls disturb customers, we use emails. This is a choice based on customer insights and post-touchpoints, which is very user-friendly.

Think about it, what insights have you gained about your customers? Are there any humanistic considerations?

3. Calculate a more appropriate email title based on the debtor’s public information. This is customer stratification + targeted content marketing. The basis for customer stratification comes from customer information.

Think about it, have you done customer segmentation? After segmentation, do you do targeted content marketing? Or do you just send it out in bulk?

4. Because of the title that is tailored to each person, we only send three emails a week, with a 65% open rate. This is because of the content layering and content level itself, which increases the open rate of the content and reduces the number of times it is reached.

Think about it, are you relying on the number of group messages to do private domain? Do you really need so many group messages? Or is it because your content is not good enough?

5. The cost of using machines to send emails is very low. This is to use tools + content marketing to replace manpower, structurally reduce (manpower) costs, and improve the ability to replicate on a large scale.

Let’s think about how to reduce operating costs with the help of private domains?

6. Dedicated manual service, flexible repayment, discounts, and even discussion of repayment plans.

This is also a targeted strategy after customer stratification. If discounts are to be given, they are not given to everyone, but to those who really need them. Special strategies are used for special groups. This truly achieves refined operations based on different groups of people.

Think about it, what kind of strategies have you developed for different customer groups?

Final Words

After all, private domain is a job that requires refined operations. If it is rough, it is not a private domain.

It doesn’t matter whether it is private or not. Providing a good user/customer experience is the driving force for business growth.

Finally, I wonder if you have ever thought about how to provide user/customer experience in your own industry?