.webp)
Auto loan servicing is a wild ride. Experian reported consumers owed $1.43 trillion on the vehicles they drove as of the third quarter of 2021 – an increase of $78 billion over the prior year. Plus, the $78 billion increase in auto debt was nearly twice that of the $44 billion increase that occurred between Q3 2019 and Q3 2020.
The good news is, as with other types of consumer borrowing, including credit cards and mortgages, people are generally keeping up with their loan payments even with some abnormal changes in employment and income. Experian also reported that the percentage of accounts that are past due by 30 days or more, delinquencies have barely changed since Q3 of 2020.
While the good news is, well, good, what about your customers who are at risk of falling behind? What can you do now to help maximize debt recovery?
A seamless experience for your customers is possible by optimizing your contact center to get the right agents, with the proper skills, in the appropriate seats, at the correct time. Provide customers with easy access to self-service tools and empower them to make changes to their loan or rental/lease plans themselves or give them access to live assistance when necessary.
Outbound Self-Service
Take a proactive approach and use outbound contact solutions to send upcoming payment reminders with the ability for customers to make a payment, defer the payment or take other actions using self-service contact center software.
Honor Communication Preferences
In our 2022 Consumer Index Report we uncovered, that just under two-thirds of the 2022 respondents invite direct contact from a business to help make them more likely to pay an overdue bill. They request the outreach comes via email (37%), voice call (20%) or text (23%). We are seeing a trend in the industry towards providing more empathetic collections.
Provide Options
If customers miss payments, give them options. Recommend other financial products or share available refinancing options to help them go from delinquent status to current on their loan.
Minimize Risk
Failing to follow regulations can result in fines and lawsuits. Outbound contact center compliance tools are critical to minimize risk. Call center operations must be run in accordance with regulatory and industry guidelines like TCPA (Telephone Consumer Protection Act), CFPB (Consumer Financial Protection Bureau), Ofcom (Office of Communications Act in the U.K.) and others. As laws, regulations, requirements and preferences change (because they do), Alvaria can help you keep up with the change through compliance tools that are easy to configure, manage and deploy.
Our advanced compliance controls such as convenient time to call and per attempt call control capabilities such as channel preference routing, that help improve customer experience and outcomes by contacting customers on channels and at times where and when they are more likely to answer.
Alvaria is the market leader in helping companies manage calling regulations and risk around the world without sacrificing contact center productivity. Learn more about how we can help maximize debt recovery while maintaining outbound compliance.
