–by Mike Sutton
I recently interviewed a number of Experian clients to determine how they believe their organizations and industry peers will prioritize collections process improvement over the next 24 months. Additional contributions were collected by written surveys. Here are several interesting observations:
Improve Collections survey results:
Financial services professionals, in general, ranked “loss mitigation / risk management improvement” as the most critical area of focus.
Credit unions were the financial services group’s exception and placed” customer relationship management / attrition control” at the top of their priority list.
Healthcare providers ranked both “general delinquency management” and “improving cash flow / receivables” as their primary area of focus for the foreseeable future.
Almost all of the first-party contributors, across all industries polled, ranked “operational expense management / cost reductions” as being very important or at least a high priority. This category was also rated the most critical by utilities.
“External partner management (agencies, repo vendors and debt buyers)” also ranked high, but did not stand out on its own, as a top priority for any particular group.
All of the categories mentioned above were considered important by every respondent, but the most urgent priorities were not consistent across industries.