Does your agency need a collections management CRM or a debt CRM? Google turns up plenty of results for both, which, at first glance, can make it slightly confusing as to what each does. Luckily, it’s actually extremely simple: the two systems are one and the same. It’s purely a difference in branding. 

Collections management CRMs are enjoying rapid adoption across the industry thanks to their ability to offer some benefits uniquely tailored to the challenges of debt settlement. While nothing will ever replace the skills of a talented and experienced agent, a good collections management CRM can do a lot to augment and enhance those interpersonal skills, including providing agents with a consistent stream of high-quality debtor information, helping them get through to debtors on the phone more often, and enabling them to better centralize and track all of their daily communications. 

 

Collections Management CRMs Enable Agents to Collect More Information

The collections process is rarely completed with a single contact, which means, in many cases, before you can collect payment, you need to collect information. When trying to close out an account, you never know which piece of information you glean might be a difference-maker. Things like a debtor’s initial reason for failing to pay, their financial situation, and any reasons for potential reluctance to close out the collection are all important, and a collections management CRM makes it fast, easy, and in many cases even automatic for your agents to record these important details for future use. 

Agents can also collect and store personal details from their conversations with debtors that can be used in future contacts to help make the process feel more friendly, build relationships quickly, and accelerate the establishment of trust. Easy access to all key debtor information that is available on-screen during a call is even more important with particularly tricky accounts that may involve more than one agent, as it ensures seamless information flow at all times. 

 

Collections Management CRMs Help Agents Get More Calls Answered

Collections are effectively a sales process, but they’re unique in that the “prospects” in collections often have a personal interest in delaying or avoiding closing. One of the most common ways debtors draw out or avoid the process is by simply ignoring calls. Once a collection agent’s number becomes familiar, it’s easy for debtors to screen or even block their calls, creating a frustrating situation on the agency side. 

Some collections management CRMs, like CRMDialer, include a built-in power dialer that can help your agents get around the problem of low answer rates and call screening thanks to a feature called local presence. Local presence allows agents to quickly and easily select their outgoing phone number from a prebuilt list inside the CRM. Local presence is intended to help boost answer rates when calling out-of-state area codes, but it can also be used to switch numbers up to make connecting with reluctant debtors easier as well. 

 

Collections Management CRMs Centralize Multi-Channel Communications

The phone is just one way to connect with debtors as many top agents also utilize email and even SMS messages regularly, when appropriate. Giving debtors the option to communicate over the channels they’re most comfortable with is a great way to encourage responses and move them through the collection process as quickly as possible. However, managing communications across two, three, or even more channels can be difficult. 

Collections management CRMs remove the friction of omnichannel communications by integrating everything — from email to calling to text messaging — into a single software platform. Since a collections management CRM’s communication tools are all integrated with the centralized lead management system, the details from each contact will always be recorded no matter which channel is used. 

 

CRMDialer — The Most Feature-Rich Collections Management CRM on the Market

If your agency is looking to put the many benefits of a collections management CRM to work, consider CRMDialer, the most feature-rich (and constantly expanding) customer resource management system in the industry. 

CRMDialer offers your agency:

• Unlimited collections management CRM users to ensure your bill won’t grow just because your agent roster does
• An advanced lead management system to help your agents better track, update, and close open accounts
• A full-featured power dialer, including automatic dialing, one-click voicemail drop, local presence, a built-in IVR system, and more
• An advanced analytics suite to provide deep real-time and historical insight on all areas of your operations
• Full centralization of all your communications, including internal chat, SMS, and email through Gmail, Outlook, or your own client

…and much more. 

To get a first-hand look at everything an advanced collections management CRM can do for your agency, start your no commitment, 14-day free trial of CRMDialer today.