ARMTech: Recent Episodes
Mike Gibb
DISCUSSION TOPICS
- As technology becomes more prevalent and sophisticated, are you seeing any changes to how those systems are onboarded? Is it getting more technical?
- What types of integrations or software present the greatest challenges when installing or onboarding?
- Do you find that the service providers are adequately equipped to provide enough support and resources? Is there information you wish you were told in advance?
- Is there more than one right way to onboard new software or services? What have you found to be the most important steps of the process? Do companies tend to go too fast or too slow?
- Who from within an agency needs to be involved in the onboarding process?
- Are there ways to salvage onboarding experiences that are not going well?
- What has been your best/worst onboarding experience?
Guests:
- Shawn Farris, Phillips & Cohen Associates
- Aaron Reiter - InterProse
- Chris Taylor, National Enterprise Systems
DISCUSSION TOPICS
- For all the bells and whistles that technology offers, is the ultimate objective of deploying tech resources to get agencies in touch with consumers or to actually help collect? How does technology help the process of convincing/persuading a consumer to collect on a debt?
- If the objective is to make it as frictionless and easy for people to make their payments, what is stopping companies in the ARM industry from creating their own apps? Wouldn’t that make it easier for people to pay?
- I did a webinar this week about web chat and one of the issues is that the technology used for chats is not necessarily integrated with the collection software, so chat transcripts aren’t connected with the account notes/history. Are there other aspects of collection attempts/interactions with consumers that would benefit from being integrated with an account?
- Let’s spend some time talking about onboarding. What do you like/not like about the process of onboarding new technology? What has been your best/worst experience?
- An app or software you would recommend to the audience. Something to help them be more productive, improve communications, stay organized, or help them in their daily lives.
DISCUSSION TOPICS
- During testimony before a House task force (https://www.occ.gov/news-issuances/news-releases/2022/nr-occ-2022-52.html), the Deputy Comptroller for Operational Risk said about artificial intelligence: Examples of where AI can be used to enhance bank customer services range from the use of chat-bots that aid in directing customer inquiries and assisting with online account openings, assist in selection of beneficial products and investments for consumers, to supporting more efficient credit underwriting, all of which have the potential to promote greater access to banking services by underserved communities. How can the ARM industry put AI to use to be of the most benefit to consumers?
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We’re seeing a lot of money flowing into helping consumers manage their finances (https://www.accountsrecovery.net/2022/05/13/bill-pay-fintech-raises-12m-to-expand-operation/, https://www.accountsrecovery.net/2022/05/10/bnpl-healthcare-startup-raises-110m-to-expand/). What do you think this means for the ARM industry? If there is all this money flowing into helping consumers not get into debt, how can the ARM industry stay ahead of this trend?
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There is a spectrum of technology adoption within the ARM industry. There are companies that are progressive at deploying new technology and there are those that are reluctant to do so. To me, this raises the debate of whether collections is more art than science. Those who are reluctant to adopt it may believe that collections is more art than those who are making investments in technology. Do you agree with that assessment? What do you think is going to happen to companies who think collections is more art than science? Can they survive?
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How should an agency build a roadmap or prioritize which types of technology investments should be made first? Is it about ROI? Collection rates? Something else?
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An app or software you would recommend to the audience. Something to help them be more productive, improve communications, stay organized, or help them in their daily lives.
Guests:
- Kristyn Leffler, Resurgent Capital Services
- Sameer Maini, State Collection Service
- Matt Scott, Emprise Technologies
DISCUSSION TOPICS
- I did a survey during a webinar this week and the number of companies communicating with consumers via email was twice as high as the number of companies communicating via text message. Why do you think that is? Is email a more effective channel?
- Three-quarters of consumers prefer to do their banking digitally (https://www.pymnts.com/news/digital-banking/2022/pymnts-data-more-than-three-quarters-consumers-prefer-digital-banking/), but more people prefer to use apps than websites. Since most companies in the ARM industry don’t have apps, how can they make sure that their websites are as user friendly as an app is? What are some of the stumbling blocks that need to be overcome?
- Ransomware attacks increased 78% in 2021, and the average ransom payment increased fivefold (https://venturebeat.com/2022/04/28/report-78-increase-in-ransomware-attacks-in-last-year/). But most companies in the ARM industry believe that something like this won’t happen to them. Are they being naive?
- Google has announced it will remove contact information, like phone numbers, from its search results, when consumers request it (https://www.accountsrecovery.net/2022/04/29/google-to-start-wiping-contact-info-from-search-results-at-consumers-request/). Do you think this will impact collection agencies’ skiptracing efforts?
- An app or software you would recommend to the audience. Something to help them be more productive, improve communications, stay organized, or help them in their daily lives.
Guests:
- Topher Androff, Universal Fidelity
- Mark Neeb, Freede
- Chris Taylor, NES
DISCUSSION TOPICS
- Companies across the ARM industry are having problems finding qualified candidates to fill job vacancies. Are there ways that technology can help offset those labor issues?
- I had an experienced collections professional that told me the older that a debt gets, the less important technology becomes. Because it takes a human to convince someone to pay an old debt. Agree/disagree?
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Now that we are a few months into the Regulation F era in debt collection, are you seeing text messaging and emails being used more frequently in communicating with consumers?
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With all of the rhetoric and attention being paid to credit reporting, how can technology help companies ensure that they are not going to end up in the headlines or the target of an enforcement action?
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An app or software you would recommend to the audience. Something to help them be more productive, improve communications, stay organized, or help them in their daily lives.
DISCUSSION TOPICS
- From a technology perspective, what should be keeping company owners and executives awake at night?
- Another digital-first platform has raised a lot of money to expand its operations (https://www.accountsrecovery.net/2022/03/31/tech-enabled-collection-platform-raises-10m/). Is this another proof of concept that digital-first collections is the wave of the future? Or are we still a long way off from that becoming a reality?
- For all the talk about the growing importance of technology, at the end of the day, it’s still humans making decisions. What do they need to understand about how technology is changing the ARM industry?
- A payment platform is going to be 100% crypto (https://twitter.com/axios/status/1511424497437618178?s=20&t=B8JR8OagzhHRWlYnI0zA6g). What will it take for companies in the ARM industry to start accepting cryptocurrency?
- I had an experienced collections professional that told me the older that a debt gets, the less important technology becomes. Because it takes a human to convince someone to pay an old debt. Agree/disagree?
- An app or software you would recommend to the audience. Something to help them be more productive, improve communications, stay organized, or help them in their daily lives.
DISCUSSION TOPICS
- More than 80% of consumers say they abandon buying something online if the payment experience is poor (https://www.accountsrecovery.net/2022/03/21/why-consumers-abandon-online-payment-submissions/). Do you think that figure translates to the ARM industry, too? What is most often overlooked when trying to make the payment experience as frictionless as possible?
- At Ignite last week, an agency gave a presentation about accepting payments via PayPal and Venmo (https://www.accountsrecovery.net/2022/03/18/new-digital-payment-channels-bringing-in-more-money-agency-shares-during-presentation/). Should all agencies be accepting payments via this channel? What channels are on the horizon that will be next for agencies to accept?
- The Okta hack (https://www.cnn.com/2022/03/23/tech/okta-breach-acknowledgment/index.html). Is this something that the ARM industry should be worried about?
- I had an experienced collections professional that told me the older that a debt gets, the less important technology becomes. Because it takes a human to convince someone to pay an old debt. Agree/disagree?
- An app or software you would recommend to the audience. Something to help them be more productive, improve communications, stay organized, or help them in their daily lives.
Guests:
- Kristyn Leffler, Resurgent Capital Services
- Michael Meyer, MRS BPO
- Matt Scott, Emprise Technologies
DISCUSSION TOPICS
- Two-thirds of consumers prefer speaking with a chatbot than browsing a website (https://venturebeat.com/2022/02/25/report-two-thirds-of-consumers-would-rather-use-a-chatbot-than-browse-a-website/). How can chatbots be deployed within the ARM industry. How can information on a collector’s website be made more readily available? How do voice assistants fit into this conversation? (https://venturebeat.com/2022/02/27/why-voice-assistants-could-be-the-future-of-user-experience/)
- 19% of consumers are late paying their bills because the portals they are trying to access are too complicated, so they give up (https://www.accountsrecovery.net/2022/03/02/consumers-want-reminders-to-help-them-avoid-making-late-payments-survey/). What can be done to make sure portals for companies in the ARM industry are not complicated?
- If you were to build a new agency, from the ground up, how different would it look from the agencies in operation today?
What is one question you would like to ask the panel? What do you want to know more about?
- What is the most important software/app that you use to help you stay organized and be productive?
- A discussion on voice assistant integrations etc. we’ll need to/want to address the topic of business resource allocation and how to build internal support for these IT projects. - InfoSec -- the heightened awareness of cyber attacks in the current global climate
Guests:
- Topher Androff, Universal Fidelity
- Jon Daane, TEC Services Group
- Shawn Farris, Phillips & Cohen Associates
DISCUSSION TOPICS
- Collection agencies create mountains of data. Do they need to keep it all? If not, how do they decide what to get rid of?
- Many agency owners feel trapped with their collection software and are not willing to spend the effort and money to upgrade or update their systems. How does an agency know it’s time to make that switch?
- Do you see “pay by bank” as a payment channel that companies in the ARM industry should adopt? (https://thefintechtimes.com/bank-of-america-leverages-open-banking-to-introduce-account-to-account-payment-solution/)
- What is the most important software/app that you use to help you stay organized and be productive?
Guests:
- Megan McDonell, Absolute Resolutions
- Michael Meyer, MRS BPO
- Kyle Nelson, InterProse