{"id":216940,"date":"2022-02-18T03:46:28","date_gmt":"2022-02-18T01:46:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mypr.co.za\/?p=113014"},"modified":"2022-02-18T03:46:28","modified_gmt":"2022-02-18T01:46:28","slug":"debt-collection-gets-smart","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/debt-collection-gets-smart\/","title":{"rendered":"Debt collection gets smart"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"scaip scaip-1 \">\n<aside id=\"republication_tracker_tool-2\" class=\"republication_tracker_tool clearfix\">\n<h5 class=\"adtitle\">Republish for Free<\/h5>\n<div class=\"license\">\n<p><button name=\"Republish This Story\" id=\"cc-btn\" class=\"republication-tracker-tool-button\">Republish This Story<\/button><\/p>\n<p><a class=\"license\" rel=\"noreferrer license noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"http:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by-nd\/4.0\/\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Creative Commons License\" class=\"lazyload\" src=\"http:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/debt-collection-gets-smart.png\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Creative Commons License\" src=\"http:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/debt-collection-gets-smart.png\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"message\">\n<p>Republish our articles for free, online or in print, under a Creative Commons license.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/aside>\n<\/aside>\n<figure id=\"attachment_113015\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-113015\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><a href=\"https:\/\/mypr.co.za\/?attachment_id=113015\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt width=\"197\" height=\"300\" class=\"wp-image-113015 size-thumbnail lazyload\" src=\"http:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/debt-collection-gets-smart.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-113015 size-thumbnail\" src=\"http:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/debt-collection-gets-smart.jpg\" alt width=\"197\" height=\"300\"><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-113015\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Rob Monteith \u2013 Debt collection gets smart<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>South Africans find themselves in a dire cash crunch. According to Stats SA, our unemployment rate recently hit 34.4% or 7.8 million jobless citizens. The harsh reality is that borrowing money has become a life-saving necessity for some, but, at the same time, debt has long been associated with stress, shame and vulnerability. Although it\u2019s not necessarily something that anyone should be ashamed of \u2013 you are paying to borrow, after all \u2013 it is something that most people would prefer to keep private. In addition, demanding payments has, up until now, heavily relied on conforming to a legal process or a call centre process, which offers minimal choice as to when and how an individual wants to be communicated with.<\/p>\n<p>One South African company has re-designed how debt collection plays out, calling on the latest analytics and communication tools to deliver the debtor (its customer) with different options discreetly, without threatening calls at inopportune moments. It\u2019s long overdue, and it\u2019s working.<\/p>\n<p>Transaction Capital Recoveries, one of the largest collectors in South Africa, assists up to six million accounts at any point in time and makes approximately 40m outbound phone calls a month to contact customers.<\/p>\n<p>In understanding the negatives that come with borrowing and owing money, they sought to reframe the perception of debt and aid in the process of reducing and dissolving it. \u201cFor the last five years, we carefully examined what could be dramatically improved within the debt collection industry. The name, for starters, has a negative connotation. Why should you experience something you pay for as a facility, like a ball and chain? What if we saw debt as a measure of \u2018credit wellness\u2019 and sought to support people with a route back to better credit health. When you remove the negativity and allow people to take control of their options, it changes the dynamic,\u201d says Rob Monteith, Group CIO at Transactional Capital Risk Services.<\/p>\n<p>Interestingly, the company explains that most people want to make good on their debt obligations when they can. \u201cThis is a key insight. However, even with state of the art artificial intelligence, we cannot always know exactly when that will be, so we need to try and stay in touch with the customer. We can add more options available in convenient digital platforms, which means we do not have to intrude as much. If we can simply connect and be supportive, we can start to help. That\u2019s where things needed to change in our industry. A softer touch.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Discreet<br \/>Getting a call while at work, or on a shared phone line, perhaps a legal letter in the post, is not an experience most people want to go through. \u201cThe first port of call is to be discreet and fair in your dealing. Then, by giving someone a digital, self-service option, they have the power to set up and make payments themselves and avoid calls altogether. They can also request an immediate call back to talk at a time that\u2019s convenient for them. Lastly, they can also interact via WhatsApp if that is a platform they feel more comfortable using. These are the methods that make sense to people right now. Our customers want to feel empowered as opposed to disempowered,\u201d he adds.<\/p>\n<p>Access to information<br \/>\u201cAs simple as it sounds, we also found that many customers want just to be able to check the current status of their debt \u2013 the ability to download a statement, check their next payment date, their current balance or how it breaks down. Now, rather than having to go through a call centre, they can do it via our digital collections platform.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Cost-efficient<br \/>The company claims that its efficient approach is cost-effective for the customers, as self-service means they don\u2019t need to charge for calls and letters. It also means they can be more flexible around any settlement negotiations.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019ve increased our agent efficiency by a multiple of 10 over the last 4 years while maintaining delivery of four times the volume of calls. Our shareholders are winning, and so are our customers. But, most importantly, bringing debtors, our customers, to better credit health means we can help them out of a tight spot, we can uplift communities, bringing South Africans back into the financial world. As we help them through the process, we can offer them a free credit score and ultimately try to give them a clean bill of health,\u201d concludes Monteith.<\/p>\n<p>For more information, please contact newsdesk@mediaweb.co.za or call 082 887 6376.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/mypr.co.za\/contact\/featured\/\">CLICK HERE to submit your press release to MyPR.co.za<\/a>.<\/p>\n<div class=\"entry-pagination pagination\">Pages: <span class=\"post-page-numbers current\"><span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Page <\/span>1<\/span> <a href=\"https:\/\/mypr.co.za\/debt-collection-gets-smart\/2\/\" class=\"post-page-numbers\"><span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Page <\/span>2<\/a><\/div>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/mypr.co.za\">Source: MyPR.co.za<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Republish for Free Republish This Story Republish our articles for free, online or in print, under a Creative Commons license. Rob Monteith \u2013 Debt collection gets smart South Africans find themselves in a dire cash crunch. According to Stats SA, our unemployment rate recently hit 34.4% or 7.8 million jobless citizens. The harsh reality is [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":216941,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[9021,1],"tags":[3257],"class_list":{"0":"post-216940","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mypr","8":"category-south-africa","9":"tag-mypr","10":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/debt-collection-gets-smart.png","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/216940","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=216940"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/216940\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/216941"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=216940"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=216940"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=216940"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}