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Collections Capability Benchmark Assessment

Benchmark your capabilities.

21 capabilities make up the target-state collections operation. See how each one is measured, then find out where you stand against your peers.

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Strategy and policy

1Strategy Models2Engagement Orchestration3Settlement & Legal Policy

Channels and payments

4Email5Text6Letters7Virtual Agent8Ringless Voicemail9Portal10Human Agents11Payments12Debt Settlement Strategies

Recovery and third parties

13Recovery Strategy143rd Party Agencies15Legal16Debt Sales

Data, consent and platforms

17Skip Tracing18Consent19Other Topics20CRM21Telephony

How the benchmark works

Built by operators, for operators.

Crowd-sourced questions

The questions come from the community. Each capability is scored against levels of maturity that lead toward the target state.

Shared results

Responses are gathered, aggregated and shared, with results split by creditor (pre and post charge-off), agency and debt buyer.

Deep dives

The sections that matter most get a deep-dive review in CEC sessions, where members compare best practices and vendor opinions.

Strategy and policy

Strategy and policy

1

Strategy Models

How do you decide which accounts to prioritize and invest in?

Pick one level
1
You prioritize accounts by balance, days past due and maybe last payment date.
2
You also consider third-party scores.
3
You also consider omni-channel engagement data.
4
You also consider DSC enrollment and other borrower situational data, such as "I was laid off yesterday."
5
You use ML, AI or robust test-and-learn strategies to execute and optimize all of the above daily.
2

Engagement Orchestration

For prioritized accounts, how do you decide how best to engage them?

Pick one level
1
You create daily files for the voice channel and use a pre-set email, text and letter cadence so efforts are not duplicated on a given day.
2
After a few failed attempts to engage the customer in a channel, you demote future activity in that channel.
3
You also use if/then rules that score the borrower's engagement at a more granular level to inform the next action.
4
You also run a test-and-learn strategy that results in strategy edits at least monthly.
5
You have a robust orchestration or next-best-action engine that pulls in, analyzes and triggers daily multi-channel action at the account level.
3

Settlement & Legal Policy

How mature are your settlement and legal policies?

Pick one level
1
Settlement and legal action policies are based only on balance, days past due and last payment date or amount, plus flags such as bankruptcy and deceased.
2
You also calculate a legal recovery score, or have a third party generate one, before placing an account into legal.
3
You adjust settlement or legal strategies based on bureau score, engagement, DSC enrollment or the customer's stated unwillingness to pay.

Channels and payments

Channels and payments

4

Email

How mature is your email channel?

Pick one level
1
You don't email, or you just mirror your letter strategy.
2
You send weekly emails to every account you have an email for, using fewer than 20 pre-set, status-based templates.
3
You vary time, day or frequency based on account, propensity-to-pay or bureau attributes.
4
You vary message templates based on the above and on engagement behaviors, with two-way email.
5
You use advanced models to edit content at the account level, and events in other channels trigger an email.
5

Text

How mature is your texting channel?

Pick one level
0
You don't text.
1
You send one or two texts a week to every account you have approval to engage, using fewer than 20 pre-set, status-based templates.
2
You vary time, day, frequency and message based on account attributes and channel engagement behaviors.
3
You use a model to edit message content, or triggers fire when the customer engages in other channels.
4
You include branded smart URLs that bypass portal log-in and take the consumer straight to the offer and payment page.
5
You include the ability to pay without going to a portal, using a payment method the consumer previously supplied.
6

Letters

How mature is your letter channel?

Pick one level
1
You send batch black-and-white letters using fewer than 20 pre-set, status-based templates.
2
Your letters use color and images, with a few layout and wording options based on account attributes.
3
Your letters reflect and reinforce your organization's brand and values.
4
Letter messaging and offers vary by customer, based on engagement and situational data as well.
5
Your letters refer to other channels: QR codes, smart URLs, or "you asked us not to call you at work, so here is a letter."
6
You have a robust letter audience and messaging selection model that optimizes cost against benefit.
7

Virtual Agent

How far along are you with virtual agents?

Pick one level
1
You have not started research.
2
You are doing informal research.
3
You are formally trying to find a partner to pilot with.
4
You have an active pilot.
5
Your pilot was successful and is being expanded.
There is also a sixth answer: the pilot was not a success, and why.
8

Ringless Voicemail

What is your level of experience with ringless voicemail?

Pick one level
1
None.
2
Compliance doesn't allow it.
3
You used it in the past and have very limited current use.
4
You use it fairly often.
5
Selection criteria and message are a function of account and engagement activity in other channels.
9

Portal

How mature is your payment portal?

Pick one level
1
It shares general firm information, but customers can't access account details or make a payment.
2
Customers verify with details such as ZIP code or last four of SSN to see their balance and make a payment, with no payment plans or settlement offers.
3
Customers can also submit a dispute, a hardship request or a complaint, and opt in or out of consent.
4
Multiple payment options are presented, and payment plans and settlement offers can be agreed to and actioned.
5
Wording and offers vary by customer based on account, behavior and situational data, such as "I lost my job."
10

Human Agents

How mature is your agent operation?

Pick one level
1
All agents are your own employees, US-based and in the office.
2
Some of your agents work from home.
3
You also use offshore or BPO agents for a share of your voice calls.
4
Your agents are supported by in-call prompts, automated notes and disposition codes, and automated call QA.
5
You track call sentiment and act on it, for example with immediate manager notification or as a variable in future voice strategy.
11

Payments

How mature is your payments capability?

Pick one level
1
You have one processor and take payments only through agents (verbally) and the portal, by debit and ACH only.
2
Customers can also pay through the IVR, and maybe secure chat.
3
You also take Venmo, Apple Pay, Google Pay and similar.
4
You run payment orchestration: multiple processors, smart routing, retry logic, network tokens and account updater.
5
You reuse payment tokens the customer has already supplied, and partner with a global token wallet, so future payments take less effort.
12

Debt Settlement Strategies

How do you work with debt settlement companies (DSCs)?

Pick one level
1
You don't work with them.
2
You only work with them if they reach out, or you leave those accounts to your agencies and debt buyers.
3
You receive batch files from the top 10 DSCs to find matches, then work them through fairly manual processes.
4
You scrub accounts for enrollment, but only at charge-off.
5
You scrub all accounts frequently: current, delinquent and charged-off.
6
When you learn of an enrollment, you adjust your settlement, charge-off, legal, third-party assignment and debt sale strategies.

Recovery and third parties

Recovery and third parties

13

Recovery Strategy

How mature is your post-charge-off recovery strategy?

Select all that apply
You don't actively collect on or sell charged-off accounts.
You have an internal recovery team.
You sell everything at charge-off.
You have at least one third-party agency.
You pursue legal action in some cases.
The rules for which accounts go to internal, third-party, legal or debt sale are fairly simple.
The rules for which accounts go to internal, third-party, legal or debt sale are extremely sophisticated and model-driven.
14

3rd Party Agencies

How mature is your agency network?

Select all that apply
You don't use agencies.
You use agencies, but only for voice and letters.
Your agencies use email and text.
Your agencies use web chat and two-way text and email.
Your agencies are piloting virtual agents.
You run six-month placement cycles with primary, second and third placements.
Your agencies run robust orchestration models that learn from and react to activity across all channels.
15

Legal

How mature is your legal network?

Select all that apply
You don't seek legal recovery.
You use a master servicer.
You manage your own network of firms.
You have an internal legal team for at least some accounts.
You allow firms to email and text.
16

Debt Sales

How mature is your debt sale strategy?

Select all that apply
You don't sell debt.
You sell through a broker once or twice a year.
You sell through a broker monthly.
You have forward flow agreements with at least one buyer.
You have a model that determines when to sell an account sooner or later, compared with placing it with a third-party agency or legal.

Data, consent and platforms

Data, consent and platforms

17

Skip Tracing

How do you find and prioritize contact data?

Open questions
?
How many accounts a month do you seek skip data for?
?
What data do you buy: name, address, phone, email, SSN?
?
Do you use any notable non-traditional data sources, such as web searches?
?
When you have multiple phones, addresses or emails, how do you score and prioritize them?
?
Do you text, send ringless voicemail, or use human or voice-bot calls to skipped phone numbers?
18

Consent

How do you capture, manage and share consent?

Open questions
?
What do you seek consent to do: voice, text, email, ringless voicemail?
?
How do you capture consent: original contract, portal, verbal, IVR, other?
?
How transferable is your consent to third-party agencies and debt buyers?
?
How do you gather, manage and disseminate opt-outs?
19

Other Topics

What else is in your toolkit?

Open questions
?
Do you use social media platforms to find or engage consumers?
?
Do you use human "clickers" for calls or texting, and if so, why?
?
What infosec tools do you use to keep your data safe and secure?
?
What other back-office tools or vendors do you use for disputes, bankruptcy, deceased accounts, e-OSCAR and similar?
20

CRM

How does your CRM rate on nine dimensions?

Rate each 1 to 5
Technology foundation
Modern stack, cloud infrastructure, security posture
1
2
3
4
5
API availability and quality
Published, documented, modern APIs
1
2
3
4
5
Extensibility and configurability
Custom workflows, scripting, low-code tools
1
2
3
4
5
Omnichannel communication
Voice, email, SMS and chat, natively integrated
1
2
3
4
5
Native vendor integrations
Dialers, payment processors, skip trace, bureaus
1
2
3
4
5
User interface intuitiveness
Ease of use for collectors and supervisors
1
2
3
4
5
Vendor support
Quality and responsiveness
1
2
3
4
5
Product evolution
Frequency and quality of updates, roadmap responsiveness to client needs
1
2
3
4
5
Add-on modules and marketplace
Breadth and quality of offerings
1
2
3
4
5
21

Telephony

How well does your telephony serve you?

Pick one level
1
It does not meet your current or future needs.
2
It works fairly well.
3
You love it.

One more question, every time

How big is the opportunity?

For each capability, you also rate the size of the opportunity relative to the effort of mastering it: very high, high, medium or low. That is how the benchmark helps you reset priorities, not just score yourself.

Benchmark your capabilities

See where you stand against your peers.

Book 30 minutes with Scott to talk through where you stand, or join the CEC to take part in the benchmark.

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