Telephone Billing: Which strategy should you use when dialing?

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With the digitalization of communication, the focus of the channels to be used in debt collection has changed a lot, however, telephone collection still plays a fundamental role in credit recovery. Understand the challenges and best practices related to the use of landlines and mobile phones in operations.

Today, when we think of collection companies that are ahead of their time, we immediately imagine those that have a robust planning department associated with the use of the latest technologies to collect debts from customers – especially those that occur via WhatsApp! Collections by telephone seem to be something that is obsolete!

Overall, this thinking is not entirely wrong, but a change in behavior by Facebook (owner of WhatsApp) has strongly affected our market: the blocking of accounts that are seen to be focused on collection actions via the app. In this scenario, companies have been looking for several alternatives to continue their operations via digital collection via WhatsApp, however, without success.

For this and other reasons, even if several new technologies emerge, telephone collection should never be forgotten or underestimated, mainly because it is an essential factor in boosting conversion for Lebanon telegram data some types of customer profiles. We cannot consider that telephone collection improves credit recovery by “scaring” the debtor customer – on the contrary – this is a channel where the debtor should feel assisted and supported in this difficult time, and the goal is to recover the debtor for the credit market (even building loyalty).

– Now, what type of phone should I focus on for dialing collection actions over the phone ?

On a macro level, with the constant growth of the mobile phone base in the country (we have almost 2 lines for every Brazilian inhabitant) and the reduction in the cost of minutes, this has become the main channel for collecting payments by telephone (in addition to sending SMS). The downside of collecting payments by telephone via cell phone is that debtors are increasingly only answering calls from phones they know – therefore, unknown numbers or numbers originating from a different area code than the one registered on the line tend to lead to unsuccessful collections. The recommendation is that debt collectors use telephone exits that make the area code displayed to the debtor customer the same as the city where they live.

– And when should we charge a landline?

Fewer and fewer people are using landlines to communicate (many don't even remember their home landline number, as they have one at their own expense)! This is because telephone companies have created plans where the minutes for calls to mobile phones are unlimited! Regardless of this change in the business model (and in people's lives), charging for calls to a landline terminal should not be disregarded, especially in cities/regions outside the major capitals, where the use of this type of telephone remains widespread.

When collecting by telephone to a fixed terminal, the recommendation is that contacts occur, prioritizing calls towards the end of the day (after 6:00 pm) as the chances of someone answering and taking a message or transferring it directly to the debtor are much greater.

There are companies that develop studies, called BTC ( Best Time to Call ), in which dialing directions for billing occur by type of telephone and area code for which the contacts are occurring. In other words, for one city, more calls may be made to landlines, and others, to mobile phones, varying according to the observed performance.

– When collecting payments over the phone for a company, what strategy should be used?

Collecting debts from a legal entity is something very peculiar. The recommendation for this type of collection by telephone is that the calls be sent to the partners or directors of the company, focusing on their cell phones. But why is this?

Many of the telephones linked to a company end up being answered by receptionists/telephonists (or they are from accounting), who will not care at all about handling internal matters related to telephone billing – in other cases, they are lines linked to company extensions (PABX), with the sole purpose of allowing employees to make calls and conferences (but not receive calls on that number).

Finally, another strategy widely used in telephone collection is that interactions also occur with the company's staff – but only in cases where no telephone collection channel , via direct contact with the company or with the partner has been effective.

Regardless of the type of telephone collection used by your company, none of these strategies will be successful if the telephone numbers in your databases are extremely out of date. In this scenario, Think Data , a leading information bureau in the collections segment in Brazil, has specialized in developing customized update projects (via registration enrichment ) that adapt to the characteristics of collection portfolios.