One of the unintended consequences of working in the Information Age is the sheer volume of data and varieties of information that threaten at any moment to leave us submerged.
The problem is no less endemic to the collections business. Indeed, it may be especially pronounced in this business since so much of what we work with in conducting collections work is information.
Transforming information into knowledge that we can use is becoming increasingly central to our work these days. And the only way to do so is by leveraging technological tools in rapidly deployable ways – i.e., analytics.
Just like there’s no turning back the clock to a simpler time, there is no turning back in our need for robust analytics to make sense of today’s information tsunami. Complex, business-transforming analytics are essential to a sustainable competitive advantage.
Turning Many Sources into One
The intense volume of raw data points and information with which we must contend is the product of multiple streams of incoming content. Those streams include:
1. Material information received from the creditor
2. Information compiled independently through in-house efforts
3. Information acquired from third-party sources
The first challenge is to take all of the above and restage it within a singular operating environment where it can be employed as actionable intelligence. The process of “porting” the large multi-source flow of information into an actionable analytics platform reflects a combination of manual and automated procedures and routines.
Our analytic system is proprietary, which permits us to monitor in-house what’s working successfully and why. As an example, trending data and progression for all users is just a click away and can be broken out into a visual format for easy interpretation.
More complex data can be broken out to help interpret trends and build plans for growth.
Among the varied areas where this kind of intelligence can be put to work is determining which customers will convert sooner than others, or sorting against intent to pay and trying to bring about a positive outcome in ways that are cost-effective.
Analytics is invaluable in identifying probable future churn and formulating the appropriate efforts to reduce it. Similarly, the ability to identify less profitable accounts for clients and determine ways to boost that profitability (through outbound calling, for example) would be virtually impracticable without the advanced analytics used.
Multi-dimensional Uses for Analytics
At the same time, it is important to note that analytics are applied not only to gaining insights into customers, but to analyze agent performance data as well. Areas such as utilization assessment and leverage of agents are among those areas where there are real benefits to putting analytics to work. Measuring talk time, intensity, quality assurance and overall productivity are of special interest as well.
Analytics provide a valuable tool in illuminating clients on how work is progressing. Metrics can be sliced and diced to allow insights into things such as intensity, as mentioned above, as well as frequency of contact and liquidation rates. Conversion successes, assessed on a dynamic basis, are of substantial value, as well.
Moreover, we can use analytics to help optimize the agent/customer relationship. By analyzing aggregated data we segment consumers with the goal of matching the right consumers with the right agents to maximize conversions.
Faced with endless waves of undigested data points and pre-scrubbed data, the task of coming at the work of collections in the smartest way possible has taken on mission-critical importance.
Powerful analytics is the best way imaginable to transform all of this raw material into the finished product otherwise known as intelligence. You may think of it as the cost of doing business. I would submit that it is an absolute necessity if you want to stay in business, and grow.
Arjun Mitra is Vice President at Firstsource Solutions. Kenneth Marsh is Deputy General Manager at Firstsource Solutions.
