The Crucial Role of AI in Early Collections to Maximize Recovery, Customer Satisfaction, and Lower Cost

Technology is essential to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of recovery in these stages, optimize management, increase contact, and improve the quality of interactions. This allows companies to offer a personalized and proactive service, avoiding negative perceptions among customers. 

Technology applied to the early stages of collection 

Omnichannel 

Omnichannel is essential for a seamless and personalized collection experience. Unlike multichannel, which only offers multiple communication channels, omnichannel integrates all channels, allowing hyper-personalization in interactions. 

Thanks to this, companies can communicate with customers through their preferred media, such as voice, chat, email or social networks, using the most effective and economical channel for each type of customer at each stage. Integration ensures that information flows seamlessly between channels, facilitating seamless transitions and more efficient collections. 

Generative AI to increase collection reach 

Generative artificial intelligence has transformed collection management by optimizing response times, reducing operational errors, and expanding the scope of debt contact and recovery. Chatbots are effective at handling basic queries and providing detailed information about outstanding payments, while voicebots automate calls to remind customers of their overdue obligations. 

The evolution towards generative chatbots and voicebots has expanded the use of AI in collections. These advanced versions not only respond to predefined commands, but also generate responses and perform complex actions autonomously, facilitating more personalized and effective interactions. 

Currently, generative voicebots are capable of managing complete collection processes, including collection, direct payment administration, or the transfer of the call to a human agent according to the customer's need. This capability expands the scope of collection and contributes to reducing operating costs, by optimizing the use of human and technological resources in an integrated manner. 

Dynamic Dialer to Increase Contact 

Efficient call management is essential to maximize reach in pre-collections. The "dynamic dialer", powered by artificial intelligence, automatically selects the best carrier, optimizing contact and, therefore, recovery in collections. 

This system analyzes various factors in real time, such as carrier availability, costs, and connection quality, to make informed decisions about the best time and media to contact customers. This optimization ensures that interactions are more effective, increasing the chances of recovery and improving the customer experience in the different stages of collections. 

Speech & Text Analytics 

It allows you to analyze customer conversations in real time, identifying patterns and trends that influence strategic decisions. Using predictive analytics, determine the most effective time to charge each customer. It facilitates the timely management of payment reminders for customers prone to forgetfulness and helps identify those less suitable for new credit, feeding back into the credit origination process. 

This technology uses the real voice of the customer to identify the reason for non-payment, eliminating the subjectivity of agents and improving the accuracy of typing. By obtaining accurate and relevant data, significant improvements in the overall collection strategy are driven. 

Combined strategy, the key to early recovery 

What is Blended Strategy? 

Each tool separately is effective, but its integration enhances its benefits. A strategy that integrates digital channels, generative artificial intelligence and the collaboration of human agents, increases recovery effectiveness and improves the customer experience.  

This model takes advantage of tools such as sending up to one million messages a day to guarantee coverage, using six or more simultaneous carriers to ensure contact, chatbots to manage queries and payment reminders, and generative voicebots to carry out complex negotiations and quick referrals to a human agent. Everything is managed through a single interface that centralizes customer information and previous interactions with bots.  

Benefits of the Combined Strategy 

• Higher reach and efficiency: By using multiple contact channels, more customers can be reached, increasing recovery rates.  

• Hyper-personalization: Integrate data from various channels to offer interactions tailored to each customer's individual needs.  

• Reduced operational costs: Automate repetitive tasks with AI, reducing operational costs by up to 40%, allowing human agents to focus on more complex and strategic cases, in addition to using more economical digital media at each stage.  

• Continuous improvement of the customer experience: Provides consistent and continuous communication across all touchpoints, increasing customer satisfaction and strengthening the company's reputation in the collection market. 

Combined Strategy Results 

The implementation of a combined strategy in pre-collection and early collection management has proven to be highly effective in improving financial and operational results.  

"During 2024, one of the main banks in Mexico obtained an efficiency of 73.26% with a combined strategy (agents, digital channels and voice bots), compared to 68.85% obtained using voice bots alone" 

This example highlights the importance of combining automation and artificial intelligence with the human touch of specialized agents. While digital technology allows for scaling operations and improving accuracy in collection management, human intervention ensures a deep understanding of the context and individual needs of customers.   

At Pentafon, we firmly believe in the potential of technology to improve processes, achieve goals and enrich the customer experience. As a leader in the contact center industry and collection experts, we understand that the evolution to blended strategy is an ongoing process that requires vigilance and specialist involvement. For this reason, we continue to advance in our collection model, where artificial intelligence analyzes data in real time to optimize strategies and make it easier for our customers to adapt quickly to changes in market behavior, keeping us at the forefront in this fourth industrial revolution.