By the end of fiscal year 2022, household debt in the U.S. reached a staggering $16.9 trillion. Based on that figure, it’s unsurprising that delinquency on all types of debt reached a 13-year high in December of last year. If one thing is clear, it’s this: consumers are in dire need of debt relief.
For debt settlement companies, this increased need for relief can be overwhelming. As consumer debt has ballooned, so too have workloads and customer service expectations. In fact, Intercom found that 83% of support teams reported an increase in customer expectations in 2022.
Luckily, there are steps debt relief companies can take to not only provide consumers with the assistance they need but increase customer satisfaction rates too.
Audit the Customer Experience
As a first course of action, it’s important to take stock of where your debt relief company’s customer experience stands. Implement mechanisms to obtain customer feedback and take time to deeply understand their wants and needs. According to a 2022 Salesforce survey, 73% of customers expect businesses to comprehend their individual needs and expectations, making this a great starting point.
Surveying your employees to uncover common pain points in the customer experience process can also yield important insights. Ask them about any common customer complaints they hear as well as internal challenges that could be negatively impacting the customer experience.
Are employees struggling to find the customer information they need when they need it? Is your staff struggling with data discrepancies? Are these issues leading to slow processing times and, in turn, unhappy customers?
Once you know where improvements are needed, you can start optimizing your internal debt relief processes.
Empower Your Employees
Satisfied employees lead to satisfied customers. A study that surveyed data from Glassdoor and the American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI) found a “strong statistical link between employee well-being… and customer satisfaction.”
Unfortunately, the combination of crushing workloads and a smaller workforce – two things debt relief companies are currently struggling with – can leave employees feeling like they can’t deliver the service customers demand. After all, burned out and unengaged employees are unlikely to simultaneously provide the highest quality work and achieve fast turnaround times.
And according to a report by Gallup, only 36% of employees in the U.S. are engaged in their work. That’s potentially detrimental to customer satisfaction.
One of the best ways to enhance employee engagement, minimize burnout, and, as a result, improve customer experience – even with increased debt relief volumes – is to provide your employees with the tools and support they need.
Many debt settlement companies are looking to financial services digital transformation solutions to streamline incoming correspondence and provide immediate access to documents. These solutions relieve pressure from employees, lead to more efficient support, and, ultimately, result in a better customer experience.
Let’s Talk Debt Settlement Process Automation at the AFCC Conference
With over three decades of experience and unmatched financial services automation expertise, MetaSource provides solutions that help companies like yours achieve all of the above and more.
Our debt relief process automation platform leverages intelligent technology to automate tedious tasks related to receiving and processing mail. By offloading time-consuming manual tasks to technology, employees are free to concentrate on more meaningful work, including providing exceptional customer support. Beyond allowing employees to focus on higher-level tasks, MetaSource’s debt settlement process automation platform:
- Reduces cycle time by 60%
- Decreases resource and time allocation by 80%
- Eliminates data discrepancies
For more information on how MetaSource’s debt relief process automation platform can bolster customer experience for your company, contact us or visit us at the AFCC Conference in Orlando on May 8th to 10th. We’ll be at booth #7 talking about all things automation.