Real-time Speech Analytics: Optimizing Debt Collection Agents

Every industry has its own compliances that are there to protect consumers by ensuring organizations operate in the right way, and the story is no different in financial services segment. All debt collection agencies must adhere to the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, in all their operations. Owing to the number of calls made every day by these companies, their debt collection managers often face the grave challenge to identify calls not adhering to industry regulations.

To solve this problem, debt collection and other call center managers have started using real-time speech analytics. Inbuilt with contemporary phone dialer software, it is a great tool for any management system serious about adhering to its regulations. Let’s take a look at how debt collectors use this tool to their advantage.

Identify any Breach of Rule

Regulatory compliances are there to ensure collection agencies do not barge into consumers’ privacy, integrity, or peace of mind. In the case of debt collection, these compliances prevent debt collectors from using any deceptive, abusive, false or unfair tactics in their collection practices. Real-time speech analytics is a great tool to combat any such violations that otherwise might be difficult to keep a check. By searching for certain keywords or phrases within a speech analytics application, it allows managers to see if there have been any non-compliant or offensive calls. They are able to trace the agents who have used any of the prohibited terms and take immediate measures to coach them.

Identify Good Calls for Training

Speech analytics is useful not only to identify non-compliant calls, but also to identify good calls. In this regard, you need to look for any positive feedback or thanking messages your customers may have used while talking to your agents. Once you identify the best calls in your department, the next step is to use them as examples to train others. New agents who listen to good calls get the right example from the beginning of their training, while those with low performance in the team get inspired to produce better results. At the same time, this process works as a confidence and moral booster for  agents whose calls you use as examples.

Evaluate the Right Calls

Evaluating the right calls has ever been a guessing game for most contact centers. Manager in companies with even the most updated dialing software sometimes find it difficult to analyze which calls should be monitored and which ones should not. This is where a speech analytics software can help. By providing more relevant criteria, it facilitates targeting the right calls in an easy and quick manner. For an example, by searching for the phrase ‘sue you’, it enables managers to find out if the phrase was used by one of his agents or the customer himself. If the agent used the phrase, they could be sent for training or coaching or may be given a final warning, and if the phrase has been used by the debtor, you may mark the case as red and bring in your legal team for a follow up.

Conclusion

Real-time speech analytics is a great solution to optimize the performance of debt collection agents. It not only helps you identify calls that require the maximum attention, but also provides an opportunity for you to ensure compliance with industry regulation. Most dialers system software in the market, today, have the feature of real-time speech analytics. Identifying the one most suitable for your business, however, needs you to consider various factors. To learn more on the subject, feel free to get in touch with one of our experts.