Servicing your borrowers with empathy in these trying times...

Lenders are focused on risk management while ensuring their teams are handling customers with genuine concern and empathy. We have mapped foreseeable challenges and solutions specific to loan account servicing. Go through this checklist to understand where your strengths and opportunities lie in enabling empathetic interactions, insights-driven communications and an agile approach to customer service.

Empathetic interactions

Challenge Does your current account servicing approach allow you to Handle sensitive conversations

• Identify and support vulnerable customers

• Handle distressed customers such as fraud targets with appropriate levels of care and sensitivity

• Provide training to staff around handling sensitive conversations

Taking the emotional burden out of financial conversations

• Use integrated digital communications e.g. email, text and chat-bots to reduce calls

• Support customer communications with intuitive web-based self-service backed by human voice calls when needed

• Create personalized communications templates with tacit empathetic messaging, verbiage and text

Insights driven communications

Proactively identifying and handling risky account and areas

• Deploy AI and analytics to proactively identify risky activity

• Adjust contact strategy across channels for at risk and secure customers based on their interactions

• Use intelligent automation to reduce manual, repetitive tasks and free up colleagues to focus on high-value work

Adjusting operations and communications based on profile data

• Define a tailored contact and collection strategy, suited to individual borrowers’ needs

• Deploy machine learning to predict the best time, channel, and contact approach to drive engagement and collections

• Use predictive modeling to forecast customer call and chat volumes and adjust resources accordingly

Agile approach

Agile solutions

• Deploy machine learning to predict the best time, channel, and contact approach to drive engagement and collections

• Reach goals by fine-tuning communications e.g. more or less assertive tone of voice

• Scale support up and down to handle variable call volumes

• React swiftly to increasing customer servicing needs e.g. with fast recruitment and training

Flexible strategy

• Create a servicing strategy that reflects brand promise and customer needs

• Turn servicing strategy into a set of operational-principles and day-to day practices

• Be ready to pivot in response to customer needs and market demands

Checking all of the boxes is no easy feat to achieve. If after going through this list you have some blank boxes you’d like to address then we’re here to help. M. Allen and our partners are an experienced end-to-end customer service specialist with a range of solutions ready to meet lenders’ challenges. We offer:

• Years of expertise to advise lenders on account handling strategy

• Analytics and AI capabilities to help lenders refine their contact methodology

• The technology to provide insights needed to balance empathy and recovery

• Solutions that span digital and traditional channels to drive engagement and collection

To learn more visit our website at www.mattallendevelopment.com or connect via email at mslonaker@mattallendevelopment.com.