Digital channels for communication are common, cost effective, expected – and perhaps most importantly – wanted by consumers. But for years, debt collection has been trapped between trying to propel their agencies forward with new technologies and being held back due to compliance fears.

Now, with permission given through Regulation F, those who haven’t dipped their toes into digital strategy should be making the change.

Digital strategy is a broad category and covers many types of technology. What fits within one agency won’t work in another. For companies beginning their journey into digital collection strategies, you likely won’t want to hire a whole department of strategists right away.

For the beginning stages of your transformation, it’s best to start small. Many agencies began this new era of collections by restructuring existing departments and adding digital responsibilities into current workflows.

You don’t need to drastically expand your team to begin planning for digital payment collection channels. You should have one dedicated strategist to take ownership of this initiative and serve as the subject matter expert to lead creation of messaging, roll out of campaigns, and data measurement.

During the webinar hosted by AccountsRecovery.net “What is a Director of Digital Strategy and Why Your Agency Needs One,” both panelists opened the discussion by sharing their personal experiences moving from ARM operations roles into this digital frontier.

Some agencies have begun implementing full digital strategies but most are just getting started. Farris says what first attracted him to the position was the amount of new opportunities it created and the chance it offered to let him create fresh ways to engage with consumers.

Radcliffe became interested in the work and the results you begin to see as you create, build and implement new strategies. Because she came from the collection world, her industry knowledge helped her to connect both parts of the business – what consumers want and what is realistic to implement as an agency.

If you want the right people for the job, you should understand the traits that attract good candidates to the position.

Radcliffe appreciates the opportunity to work with her team every day, coming up with new ways to talk to consumers, like implementing a chatbot, creating 24/7 customer service channels and creating new emails that help her agency save on paper mail costs.

Those creating a role for a digital strategist (or those looking to fill this type of position) may wonder what day to day functions the job should include. The panelists say these are the most common responsibilities they cover in their own work:

• Evaluating current channels available to consumers and comparing them to the actual portfolios within your agency, then creating ways to bring them together. How are the channels available to you going to fit into the existing call flow?

• Understanding and managing compliance concerns within digital channels. All of the new technologies you use need to be compliant with Regulation F and other relevant industry, communication and payment collection rules and regulations.

• Working with Operations to ensure that what you propose is realistic, doable, and worth doing. Be willing to work across departments to understand the best way to use new products, features and services in a way that’s good for both staff and consumers.

• Tracking digital strategies and monitoring analytics to ensure what you’ve implemented is working (and being prepared to adjust what you’re doing based on the results). You should be monitoring analytics to see what’s effective and what’s not. Don’t be afraid to experiment based on what you see.

So what about the negative aspects of digital collection? “You can have some growing pains,” says Radcliffe. “You have to have the right resources within your company.”

A good IT department, proper tools and the ability to track your campaigns are all important to a successful plan. If you don’t have these, the job will be more difficult and you are not likely to see much success.

“I don’t believe there is a downside,” says Farris. “I think there is that learning curve. There’s a lot of work that once you start to engage your digital channels, there becomes a lot of test and control management.”

What does this mean for agencies who don’t have the tools and talent to strategize, create, implement and measure digital engagement? It’s better to put energy into acquiring the necessities and finding the right employees to own the process first.

When entering this new area of consumer engagement, you need to build a clear job description for the person or team you want.

While many requirements depend on the tools and workflows you already have available, both panelists say natural curiosity and flexibility are important. Digital strategy is all about experimentation and analyzing results. You need people who are interested in how things work and are motivated to discover ways to make them better.

The person or team in charge of digital channels is likely to work with people across the entire company. It may be beneficial to find people knowledgeable in operations, compliance, IT, analytics, and dispute resolution – or those with a willingness to learn – so each department is taken into account.

In many ways, this new style of digital debt collection mirrors common marketing practices most companies follow.

With this new type of consumer engagement, you will often need to try new messaging for written content like SMS and email, monitor statistics like open and click rates, and focus on the customer experience and ease of use in consumer portals and other digital channels.

Learning best practices and basic marketing tactics will help you create and effectively deliver better messages to your consumers, increasing engagement, right party contacts (RPCs) and revenue.

It’s important to monitor success with your digital channels. Especially once you have several campaigns and tools running simultaneously. Farris breaks his analytics down in three ways:

1. What happens immediately once a new channel or strategy is being launched? For example, when beginning to use email communications, you will want to monitor delivery rates, opens, who clicked through to the next action, etc.
   
   
2. What happened during that immediate engagement? Follow who clicked into your website from an email, who called in after receiving it, how many didn’t engage at all or any other actions relevant to the communication.
   
   
3. Long term, how does the strategy work? Leave experimental workflows or channels running long enough to get data that will help you plan for the future. Look at whether effectiveness remains stable or if it drops off after 30, 60, or 90 days. Use your information to see where it will fit within the big picture or within other workflows permanently.