Most leading enterprises have digital transformation strategies centered on strengthening customer engagement and providing an overall better customer experience. However, what we have found while engaging with prospective clients is that some effort and focus has yet to be applied when dealing with past due customers. Even the most customer-centric organizations, who view every customer relationship as unique, often disregard this approach the moment customers fall behind on payments. Lacking empathy, the past due customer experience is historically known to be very damaging due to a one-size-fits-none approach. Risk-based strategies can skew towards aggressive, whereas empathetic engagements focus on sustaining the relationship with the customer.
The reality is, until the unforeseen damage of this experience is brought to light, many enterprises truly don’t realize that there is a better way. Here’s how you can overcome unintended consequences of ineffective past due customer engagement:
Fully understand the impact on your bottom line
While you may closely monitor your cure rates, inbound call volumes and outbound dialing, this may neglect to capture key aspects of your engagement strategy that are costing you customers. Unclear, standardized emails that lack flexibility mean your messages will likely be unread. Repetitive and aggressive outreaches from third-party agencies will lead customers to associate this negative experience with your brand. This is just scratching the surface – every poor customer experience has the potential to negatively impact your Net Promoter Score.
Find impactful ways to augment your existing experience
Improving customer engagement starts with personalization that matters. Understand how to best reach your customers by engaging them through the digital channels they actively use, and ensuring they receive the right message at the right time. Acknowledge your customers’ unique circumstances with flexible payment options or provide peace of mind by quickly addressing how services are affected by unexpected events happening in their region. We’ve engaged millions of customers, which is why we know that personalized, digital-first engagements are proven to create positive experiences that build brand loyalty, improve cure rates and empower customers to catch up on bills before reaching collections.
Better understand your past due customers through interaction
One-way communication sacrifices your ability to capture the voice of the customer. With more opportunities for your customers to engage with and respond to outreach, you’ll increase digital interactions and stay attuned to changing customer sentiment and behavior. Capturing meaningful data allows you to extract actionable insights that can be applied to every aspect of the customer experience to improve results. This deep understanding of the unique needs and preferences of your customers builds the foundation needed to consistently provide a positive experience that adapts as customers change.
Engage with empathy
Behavioral science and data-driven insights allow you to show your customers you have a deep understanding of their unique circumstances and value their business, in good times and bad. Engaging with empathy means meeting your customers where they are. This is shaped by your ability to customize customer interactions in real-time through messaging, personalized offers and channels. Imagine the impact of creating a positive experience for a customer when they need it most – we know you’ll create a customer for life.
Want to protect your revenue while improving NPS?
Resolve past due bills faster, keep customers longer. Our Behavioral Engagement Technology™ can reinvent your past due customer experience and create customers for life.
