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Privatisation in the eighties and nineties has seen the evolution of commercial
aware utilities. In 1998, the electricity supply industry was totally
deregulated giving industrial users and the public the chance to choose their
electricity supplier.
This has forced the previous monopolies to change their ways, and to think
commercially about operational costs, cash flow, and customer service.
Debt collection or, as it can be more delicately named, arrears counselling, is
an area that is facing these new commercial realities. Three areas are
increasingly coming under scrutiny: the quality of customer care; cost of
operation; and cash flow.
Customers of public utilities now expect to be treated as valued customers
rather than consumers who have no choice in their supplier. Insurance companies,
banks, and retailers have made great strides in making it pleasant and easy to
do business with them. The public utilities must follow suit. Every aspect of a
public utilities operation is now constantly being appraised with a view to
cutting costs. Cutting staff costs and overheads can only go so far. To achieve
further savings in operational costs, new efficient business processes have to
be put in place.
For a public utility, customer arrears is an important issue. If the average
delay between invoice despatch and remittance can be reduced by a matter of
days, the benefits in cash flow will make a significant impact on the business.
The benefits of the telephone
Public utilities are increasingly turning to the use of the telephone in arrears
counselling. It offers many benefits.
1.
Reduced costsLower cost compared with writing. A
single phone call, which is successful in prompting payment is more cost
effective than a series of reminders and follow-up letters.
2. Maintain a knowledgeable and responsible customer interfaceThe use of
the telephone provides a human, caring face to the customer, in sharp contrast
to an impersonal demand letter. Furthermore, in cases where there is a genuine
inability to pay, telephone arrears counselling can identify the problem early
enabling the utility and the debtor to explore the various routes for solving
the problem. Both parties benefit, the utility avoids expensive legal action and
has a greater chance of recovering the debt, the debtor has help and advice on
solving the problem, rather than being faced with legal action.
3. Increased revenueA telephone call has proved to be more effective in
prompting a payment than a letter. Many customers delay paying until the last
possible moment. Reminders by post have little effect on them. However, a
reminder by telephone is very personal and successful in encouraging prompt
payment. Not only are average arrears times reduced but the success rate with
bad payers is improved, increasing overall revenue.
4. Better use of resourcesAn automated telephone-based arrears
counselling system will enable staff to work more efficiently and make it
possible to manage effectively.
5. Business opportunitiesWhen an arrears counselling call centre is
established and running successfully, its role can be expanded to encompass
sales, marketing, and information broadcast.
The traditional use of the telephoneUntil
recently, if the
telephone was used in arrears counselling staff dialled manually using printed
lists of debtors. The staff (agents) might have printed details of the account
or might have to look up the account details on a terminal. Not only was this
slow and laborious, but it was difficult to keep track of the unsuccessful calls
that were not answered and would require calling at a later date.
A further problem with this type of system is that payments may have been made,
but not yet recorded on the system. This results in an unnecessary and sometimes
embarrassing call to a customer who has already paid.
This type of system is also difficult to manage, both in terms of keeping
accurate records and staff productivity. It was especially difficult measuring
productivity of the department and individuals.
More advanced arrears counselling systems used automatic diallers as an
alternative to manual dialling, but the agents still had the problem of calling
up the customer record on a screen before or after the number was dialled.
What are the requirements of a
telephone-based system?The use of the telephone
by public utilities for arrears counselling is not new, but the development of
Computer Telephony Integration (CTI) has made it possible to make far more
effective use of the telephone.
Public utility organisations are large and have made a massive investment in
computerised information systems for customer records, billing and so on. A
telephone-based arrears counselling system must have the ability to integrate
with this existing, or legacy, system to import and export customer records.
The system must also be capable of analysis, be able to de-duplicate records,
profile against criteria, and so target customers for calling. For example,
customers who are 30 days in arrears and owe more than £250 might be selected
for calling.
The system must be able to schedule and prioritise the call work load for each
agent. The scheduling parameters must be flexible and easily changed. A typical
call schedule will start with calls from the previous days that were
unsuccessful (unanswered), followed by calls that have been scheduled by an
agent (call back in seven days and so on), and high priority arrears calls with
lower priority calls scheduled for the end of the shift.
Manual dialling is time consuming and prone to misdialling. The system must dial
automatically and have the ability to reschedule calls that are unanswered, and
drop calls that are answered by answering machines or fax machines, or give
unobtainable tone.
The dialling part of the system must have flexibility to work in two ways.
Either the agent is shown the customer record before the number is dialled, and
has the choice of making the call or moving on to the next record. This is known
as previous dialling. Alternatively, the system presents calls to the agents as
soon as they have finished the administration from the last call. The agent does
not have a choice in accepting or rejecting the call. This is known as force
feeding.
The agents must be presented on screen with a customer record before taking the
call which has been dialled automatically. The agent must also have sufficient
time to review the customer record in order to be prepared to handle the call in
an effective and courteous manner.
In addition, agents must have the ability to key-in notes during and after a
call, avoiding the need to take notes on paper, which are then transcribed onto
the customer's computer record.
Agents must have the ability to reschedule calls. Often a call will be answered
by the wrong person, that call must be rescheduled for a time when the customer
is likely to be available.
Agents must have the ability to enter event codes which will trigger an action
on the customer account. Maybe to send direct debit mandate forms, information
on budget schemes, or perhaps the installation of a coin operated meter.
If appropriate, the system should offer scripts for the agents. For
inexperienced agents, the script must be detailed so that it can be followed
verbatim. More experienced agents will only need outline scripting for guidance.
Script writing and screen design must be simple and fast. Often scripts will
need to be changed during a project as a result of
feedback from agents. Scripts must accommodate complex conditional branching
which is presented clearly and simply to agents.
A call centre handling the arrears counselling deals with incoming calls as well
as outgoing calls. It is inefficient in terms of manpower utilisation if agents
have to be assigned to either taking incoming calls, or making outgoing calls at
any given time. The system should present both incoming calls and outgoing calls
to agents. Incoming calls take priority over outgoing calls. This is often known
as blending or swinging.
In order to manage an arrears counselling call centre, the manager must have
detailed statistics on both individual agents and the overall business
performance.
It is important that the entire system is supported by a single maintainer, and
that there is a single point of contact for the system manager in the event of a
problem. It is not practical to have separate maintainers for the different
elements of software and hardware. In addition to the problem of knowing who to
call, there is the hassle of different maintainers denying responsibility for
all but the simplest of faults.
No business is static, therefore as the arrears counselling call centre matures
and becomes successful, the scope of its operations will expand. Many parts of
the business including marketing, sales, and information services can be
effectively supported by a call centre. To expand
and develop the system, it is necessary to have access to the system's designers
and developers who can develop the system to meet your new requirements. If the
system's designers are not readily available, it will be difficult to develop
the system.
Does it work?
A well known arrears collection agency who installed a telebusiness system
reported that productivity increased from six outbound calls an hour to 22 calls
an hour.
A regional electricity company reported similar improvements in productivity
from four contacts per hour to 18 contacts per hour. These benefits result from
a combination of efficient working practice, improved staff discipline, improved
management control, and a cultural change.
Tim Redpath is Head of
Marketing at Mitel Telecom
Source:
Credit Control Journal
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