After a few months of calling and mailing letters to a client or patient who isn’t paying their bill, you decide to turn the case over to a commercial debt collection agency. With calls and letters, your business debt collection agency makes every effort. However, debt collection companies are subject to a different standard when speaking with debtors than first-party creditors because of a regulatory law known as the Fair Debt Collections Practice Act (FDCPA).
The Federal Trade Commission’s debt collection laws safeguard both the original creditor and the debtor (businesses). However, it’s getting harder than ever for consumer debt collectors to forge meaningful ties due to technological advancements as well.
What can you do? Let’s find out together.
Commercial Debt Collections: The State of Mail and Phone Calls
Let’s start by examining what isn’t working. According to US Postal Service research, younger people interact less with so-called snail mail (paper mail) than older people. Even if the majority of individuals concur that they enjoy getting joke mail and cards from friends, they rarely pay heed to alerts and invoices, especially calls from ominous numbers.
Only 52% of phone calls made to Americans in the meantime are answered due to an increase in spoof calls. According to a survey, calls from contacts are picked up 70% of the time. A business call is answered on about 53% of occasions. A strong possibility is that a person knows commercial debt collection agencies and chooses to ignore them.
| Different Age Cohorts have the same perception of the brand.
Gen X, Millennials, and baby boomers all reported comparable levels of satisfaction with the postal service; around 80% of each generation said they were somewhat or very satisfied with USPS.
Age cohorts similarly rated different aspects of their interaction with the postal service, like customer service, value for the money, and the quality, reliability, and security of products and services.
Millennials check their mailbox less frequently, but are more digitally connected
Millennials reported getting fewer mailpieces than older generations, which corroborates existing research that mail volume is correlated to age. It is found that millennials pick their mail and review it less frequently than older generations.
Check Mails at least 6 days a week Review, read, or sort at least 6 days a week
Millennials 44% 41%
Gen X 60% 57%
Baby Boomers 73% 72%
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Get Customer Data First
It is crucial for you to have clients/patients fill out applications if you’re applying for a loan or credit. Yes, even owners of small businesses. Depending on the nature of your organization, you might not want to request a variety of contact options. On the other hand, gathering contact information and consent at the beginning is permissible and definitely required in the healthcare industry and other sectors. Even if you are not working with a commercial debt collection agency, you still need to acquire the following.
Consent – The Fair Debt Collection Practices Act restricts the manner in which third parties, such as collection agencies, interact with your customers if you were not originally provided this information. Capturing this at intake provides the collection agency with expressed consent for future contacts to be made in various forms.
Address – You probably already ask for this, but having this allows another level of confirmation in the skip-tracing process.
Phone Number – Ask for more than one and denote which are landlines versus cell phones. New rules are being proposed that will allow cell phones to receive collection texts for payments. Identifying this in advance saves a lot of time and effort in the collection process.
Email Address – Try obtaining personal email addresses, as it is against FDCPA to email debtors at their place of employment.
Social Security Number – Many people have the same first and last names, and others change their names (marriage, divorce). The SSN will later help confirm we have the correct person.
Date of Birth – Again, for identity confirmation.
Commercial Collection Agency: What Else a Business Can Do
- Younger people prefer convenience above most things, and it’s true for paying bills.
The majority of millennials prefer online payment, according to a study by the postal service. Consider developing an online payment system if your business does not already have one. Your bill pay rate will probably rise even though you will have to pay processing costs.
- Allow consumers to split larger payments into two or three.
Alternatively, think about setting up automatic withdrawal options for payment plans so you can be sure you will receive a payment each month.
- Check out our other tips for collecting overdue payments.
It is much more effective to obtain consent and different types of communication at the beginning of your customer connection. Whether it’s your team or a debt collection agency, it will significantly increase collection rates.
Conclusion
Consumer collections are highly regulated to prevent consumer debt collectors from being abusive and deceitful. Commercial debt collections can use certain collection practices that are otherwise banned under consumer collections regulation. One reason is that consumer information is protected and private, but a business’ contact, finances, and other information are generally readily available to the public. Commercial debt collection agencies must still be licensed and bonded before performing collections in any state.
If you need help with cash flow and past-due consumer debt settlement:
- Contact a commercial debt collection agency.
- Hire a reputed commercial debt collections agency that will help immediately to start tackling your old payments.
- Contact one so as to help your business before it’s too late.
