For example, there has been a significant shift in consumer behaviours, with over 30% of UK consumers planning to spend more locally, perhaps so that they can physically get to these local suppliers, but also to get better value. For consumers who are subject to income uncertainty however they are 300% more likely to shift their spending and during this pandemic may be facing issues in making payments.
Added to this shift in consumer behaviours is the rise in social media and messenger usage especially in finding and engaging with these local businesses. In short, we are in the middle of a massive disruption, or a huge digital acceleration which every way you look at it.
In the world of collections, getting customers back into a repayment habit quickly is becoming the number one objective for most credit and collection teams, and given the sheer volume of customer conversations that must be undertaken, communicating with customers about their payments is now presenting as a significant challenge.
Perhaps a clue as to how to solve this is contained in the paragraph above. Customers are already using their messaging apps to interact at a scale that we have never seen before. The key is to harness the power of channels like SMS and WhatsApp to help get customers back into a routine, many of whom may have been on payment holidays and others that need to arrange new reduced payment plans.
So, how can this be achieved? Well for Webio clients, this has been achieved through the roll out of messaging incorporated with automation, chatbots and a little bit of AI (otherwise known as conversational messaging). The ability to engage with customers over messaging has been a game changer for collections.
Organizations can use messaging to coordinate payment agreements and arrangements using conversational interaction, conversational forms, and integrated payments.
To achieve this companies can use Webio pay and the Webio API to integrate with their existing digital assets. Webio is already doing this with several leading UK companies. As one might expect these leading companies or are already preparing for the challenges of 2021.
