FAQ
A: Thunder & Ice is a national Credit Solutions Company. We specialise in assisting clients to collect due payments from the early stage of non-payment to a full legal action by way of Judgement and Warrant of Execution
A:Early non-payment intervention through our AI driven platform and software as well as skilled proffesionals in our contact centres, Debt Collection on a no success no fee basis, legal processes, holistic solutions to the debtor.
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Why should your inhouse financial team use data to improve collections rates
Understanding data is the key to identifying trends, anomalies and market opportunities. Outdated debt collection strategies rely heavily on human instinct and knowledge alone, instead of using numerical logic to develop an unbiased solution. Collating data through artificial intelligence means companies can minimax channels, messaging, timing and the tone to improve collections rates and customer experiences. The idea of minimax is to use AI, decision theory, game theory (if appropriate), statistics and psychology to minimise the possible loss for a worst-case scenario.
Unlike expected value or expected utility, minimax, also sometimes called MinMax / MinMaxing, makes no assumptions about the probabilities of various outcomes of customers. It just creates a scenario analysis of what the possible outcomes are. Having this kind of logic can give companies an early insight into problems before they arise and allow them to adjust the collections approach according to the possible data findings. For instance, it can identify early potential defaulters by singling out those with long response times to communications and use predictive modelling to help you take the right action.
A prime example of this would be to use a nudge, such as an early payment discount, to encourage potential future defaulters to settle their account before it enters the collections cycle.
Personalise the customer experience through behavioural science
The way artificial intelligence is transforming debt collection is through behavioural science. Younger, computer-savvy Millennials (1981-1996) and Generation Z (1996-2010) customers are looking for new, on-demand solutions when it comes to making payments. They don’t want to receive phone calls during work hours or demanding letters with a time-consuming call to action.
Artificial intelligence has the capacity to help companies make smarter choices on when to contact customers and how, based on their behaviours. It’s now possible to design algorithms with predictive models using the information attained through data and machine learning.
Basing the findings on demographic, social and economic data, debt collection strategies can be prioritised and applied built on the data associated with each debt.
For instance, using the age, salary, profession and historical interactions of a customer, you could establish the probability of them making a debt payment. In turn, this will give you the knowledge to tweak your approach to ensure you only use the best channel where you’re likely to get a positive response. This will help streamline operations for your company too.
Conduct enhanced A/B testing
The final benefit of using artificial intelligence in debt collection is its advanced ability to A/B test. With its ability to learn from experience, data metrics, and predictive algorithms, AI can analyse the effectiveness of an email, payment landing page or SMS.
It’s not just a case of looking at two email open rates and seeing what subject line was more effective. AI gives you the opportunity to understand their behaviours prior, during and after an email is sent. For example, have they ignored previous messages or interactions? If they opened an email, how long did they spend reading it? Did one group of customers respond quicker when you changed the colour of a button or introduce a nudge?
Artificial intelligence works, analyses and acts quicker than humans. Plus, its intricacies of multivariate testing, whereby a company incorporates several changes in one variant, is seamless.
It’s not a case of AI vs A/B Testing, it’s an amalgamation of the two that improves the productivity of testing on the debt collection strategy. The cycles of testing are simply expedited because of the knowledge and capabilities of artificial intelligence.
You no longer have to second-guess what your best channels are to certain customer personas. AI can conduct rapid A/B Testing to continually test behaviours to give you a clear idea of how to adjust the tone of your messages, use the right call to action and send at an optimum time of day. There’s no waiting around, you’ll attain data quickly and be in a position to make adjustments fast.
Conduct enhanced A/B testing
As it stands, artificial intelligence is already capable of improving debt collection within companies. Its capacity to use data, machine learning and behavioural science is a powerful means of understanding customers on a deeper and more personal level.
AI eradicates the need for guesswork and human biases and every step can be used to logically automate the process as well as develop a customer-centric approach. It’s the companies who recognise the importance of prioritising long-term relationships through a better experience that will prosper and grow. It’s just a case of deciding whether you want to do it the easy way using AI or rely on other means