As a growing vertical, this whole sector is struggling to scale and still be cost effective. Voicebots are part of a solution that now a reality. no longer is this technology seen as experimental, but it is in use across this sector and should be a move that allows early recovery and a whole new opportunity for smaller consumer debt.
Find out more and see how this is taking the sector by storm.
Visit our site to find out more about voicebots in debt collection.
Our latest series of podcasts, concentrates on voice and how that is going to impact the next few years with tips along the way. Find out more about voicebots here and if you have any subjects that you would like us to discuss then email info@disruptionworks.co.uk with the subject Podcast and we will see what we can do ;-)
As a growing vertical, this whole sector is struggling to scale and still be cost effective. Voicebots are part of a solution that now a reality. no longer is this technology seen as experimental, but it is in use across this sector and should be a move that allows early recovery and a whole new opportunity for smaller consumer debt.
Find out more and see how this is taking the sector by storm.
Visit our site to find out more about voicebots in debt collection.
Our latest series of podcasts, concentrates on voice and how that is going to impact the next few years with tips along the way. Find out more about voicebots here and if you have any subjects that you would like us to discuss then email info@disruptionworks.co.uk with the subject Podcast and we will see what we can do ;-)
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David Antwis
Hello and welcome to another episode of Disruption Works chit chat with me. David and I'm joined by Steve.
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Steve Tomkinson
I like that. How you doing?
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David Antwis
All right. Thanks. It's.
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David Antwis
So this so you've joined me in the basement this time.
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Steve Tomkinson
Oh well, yeah, trying to get out of the storm.
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David Antwis
Yeah, there's a strong wind out there, isn't it?
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David Antwis
But.
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Steve Tomkinson
Yeah, it's a bit too hairy on the top floor. We don't want it. Don't like it anymore. We're enjoying the views. But we're not now.
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David Antwis
No, no, it's worrying. OK, well, welcome to welcome to my domain.
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Steve Tomkinson
It's alright.
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David Antwis
Not today. We're gonna talk about voice bots, aren't we?
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Steve Tomkinson
Yeah, yeah.
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David Antwis
And.
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David Antwis
It's gonna be about debt collection.
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Steve Tomkinson
Yeah, not the greatest subject, but it's an important one and it's it's a growing area. So what can you do?
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David Antwis
Right. Yeah, it's it's, it's a. We're gonna put a poll. It's positive spin on this, aren't we?
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David Antwis
Yeah.
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Steve Tomkinson
Yeah, OK. We will. We'll try our best, best and look the the. The point is it's it's massively important to be as efficient as we can. And you know this, this technology is perfect for it and it's proven to be perfect. So it's mad that if if you've got to collect in a company or a debt outside the Ure, a collection agency that you're not using this technology now.
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Steve Tomkinson
You know, it's mad because it's it works so so well.
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David Antwis
Right.
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David Antwis
Well.
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David Antwis
We need to remind ourselves what voice bots are before we get into details here.
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Steve Tomkinson
Yeah. Suppose if you haven't bumped into it before, don't know, it's probably worth doing. I mean the the point is, is that the voice technology is moved on so much now that these voice bot isn't robotic. And I think that's probably part of the core really. You know, you're talking about something that's a very naturalistic, sad thing.
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Steve Tomkinson
I'm automation sounds very much like an agent.
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Steve Tomkinson
And I.
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David Antwis
It is very good. Yeah, it's impressive. Yeah.
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Steve Tomkinson
Yeah, it is. And and that makes such a difference when you're trying to do something that's sensitive.
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Steve Tomkinson
Not that we ever try and fool anybody that it's a human.
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David Antwis
Yeah, yeah, it would be cool to that. You'll be caught out.
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Steve Tomkinson
Because that's you're in a highway to nowhere there anyway. You know that's not. Yeah, be cool out, but it's just not a great idea. It's the wrong way to do it. But.
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Steve Tomkinson
They the the sound and the the way that I voice part can interact. Uh, because we can now understand what the other person's saying very clearly is, is very powerful and that's why it's becoming so user friendly. And it's just now a proven way of doing calls like this where you need volumes and you need efficiency.
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Steve Tomkinson
Now.
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David Antwis
And then yes, I suppose the the nature of the conversation about that my debt if someone was calling me, it's it's preferable to speak to something where I can speak naturally.
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Steve Tomkinson
Yeah.
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David Antwis
Rather than having to repeat the word that they're telling me to repeat and the old style robots and so yeah.
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Steve Tomkinson
No, no, that's right. I I mean that's it. The whole thing is changed, you know and.
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Steve Tomkinson
Hey, cause all you're already. It's an emotional place anyway, so if you can have a conversation that has some sort of appreciation of where they're coming from.
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Steve Tomkinson
Had you know when you're doing a negotiation and stuff like that, then that all makes makes the whole experience better for the user and and more efficient and more effective from a conversion perspective as well so that you know it performs a lot better.
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Steve Tomkinson
Yeah.
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Steve Tomkinson
Ohh.
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David Antwis
Right. And while I know that they're quite easy to set up and it's, yeah, you need a business case for to make this.
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David Antwis
To make it work, don't get it, yeah.
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Steve Tomkinson
Yeah, absolutely. And and look, the, the the point is and let and let's talk about this is the fact that this technology is mature and so.
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Steve Tomkinson
This this may be new to somebody that's listening to this now, but it's not new, you know, it's now been used.
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Steve Tomkinson
Uh, quite widely.
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Steve Tomkinson
It's easy to set up a a new bot for a specific data collection, quickly fishing only.
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David Antwis
Yeah.
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Steve Tomkinson
And it just it just works really really easily. You can you can start it off at pilots. You can go straight in. You know, this is the point. You know, we we're not in an experimental zone now. It isn't experimental anymore. It is being used widely. And you know, it's got to be considered as a massive use case for their debt industry.
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David Antwis
For the, for and any industry that that it's been used in in you try it, if you like it, you just roll it out across the whole thing, don't you so?
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David Antwis
But.
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David Antwis
You know.
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Steve Tomkinson
Yeah, yeah, absolutely. And and that's and it's it's usually the case. It's very, very rare, but I've been fact, I can't remember the last one where where it wasn't because the results are just it just work and then that's the whole point of it really. So it becomes a very much a no brainer. We can see what analytics come out of pilots and things like that. So that's an easy starting point and all of a sudden you realize that the boxes efficient as an agent in their call center well.
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David Antwis
OK, OK.
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Steve Tomkinson
Why? Why would you not get something that can scale and stuff? You know, just make it doesn't make sense.
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Steve Tomkinson
Yeah, yeah.
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David Antwis
That seems to be that's. That's how I see it as well. Yeah. Alright well.
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David Antwis
We're talking about debt collection.
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David Antwis
How do you see it going in being used in debt collection?
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Steve Tomkinson
Well.
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Steve Tomkinson
The scenarios everybody's a bit different business wise as far as how they collect their debts and what's shape and profile their debts are. But if you are.
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Steve Tomkinson
And escalating a a call and you're going through several call processes like you would with a a normal agent. Then you would do exactly the same with the voicebot and.
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Steve Tomkinson
So none of this is outside of the realms of understanding for anybody that's trying to put this into place.
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Steve Tomkinson
You know, so if you've got a a normal path of escalation that you would have, then you would follow exactly the same path. You don't need to do anything different than you would with a team of agents in a contact center. So all we need to do is train our bot to act like your agent. You know, it's that simple. So we'll have several calls. We'll do several types of voicemails. Maybe if we're leaving messages.
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Steve Tomkinson
We'll have interactive bits where we can send payment links. We can hand over to warm transfer to teams so we can work alongside teams as well, so all those nuances of conversation that you would have in a process we would do and whether strengthening message, if we're going a bit further down. So if we're on call three or four or something like that, then we might say, well, OK, we're gonna have to.
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Steve Tomkinson
Escalate this to X process. You know door collection or it might be you know, solicitors are gonna get involved or whatever it may be, but it will be exactly the same as the human agent. It doesn't have to be anything different and that's that's the core of it. You know what we've seen and what is really important to understand is that this is as effective a collection method as human agents in a contact center. And that is now being proven.
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Steve Tomkinson
To be the case.
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David Antwis
Right.
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David Antwis
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
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Steve Tomkinson
Except it doesn't cost nearly as much because her bot doesn't cost nearly as much. You know, we're saving 70% on the standard.
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Steve Tomkinson
Umm.
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Steve Tomkinson
Human agent but.
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Steve Tomkinson
It's not just that you can actually do scale, you know. So a bot can do 100,000 calls concurrently if you want it to.
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David Antwis
Gosh.
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Steve Tomkinson
Doesn't matter, it doesn't care, you know? So it doesn't really matter in that regard. But if you want it to be.
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Steve Tomkinson
The.
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Steve Tomkinson
You know, uh, used across a wide range of different debts. You can do exactly the same thing so.
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Steve Tomkinson
It it doesn't matter, but it it works just as well and that's the important bit to get to to get across here.
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David Antwis
11.
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Steve Tomkinson
I.
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David Antwis
It does sound good the the the process is in the business don't change the, just the implementation of the contact.
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Steve Tomkinson
Yeah.
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David Antwis
Gets an upgrade as it were, and.
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David Antwis
And the efficiencies that you are about cost savings?
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David Antwis
Yeah.
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Steve Tomkinson
Yeah. Well, that's significant, you know, because we we charge a per minute rate and that's how it works.
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Steve Tomkinson
Umm, but usually the calls are shorter and because we can be more efficient on the call. So we generally get about 40% less call time and just simply because it's a much more efficient to the point kind of call usually.
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Steve Tomkinson
But, but also if we're talking about the economies.
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Steve Tomkinson
If you've got a UM, an end dettor that's got a a small debt.
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Steve Tomkinson
There's normally not collected until it becomes a big debt, and that can then be a problem for actually their debt themselves. You know, the person at the end, the actual human at the end of this process.
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Steve Tomkinson
Is OK. They're not addressing their debt and they, you know, they've got that parking ticket that they haven't paid, but they can.
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David Antwis
Stitch in time saves 9.
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Steve Tomkinson
Uh, get chased harder on that ticket to make sure it doesn't escalate into thousands of pounds where it might have been hundreds. You know, before. Yeah, just. Well, it just helps, you know, it helps that whole process.
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Steve Tomkinson
Umm, so it does actually become a much more.
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Steve Tomkinson
Effective process for collecting smaller consumer debts.
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David Antwis
That's when you know you get something.
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Steve Tomkinson
Rather than miscalculating into big debts, uh, which is, you know, normally when you then have somebody there be a tracks it to doing it, you know.
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David Antwis
I see. Yeah, I can. I can see that it's.
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David Antwis
You you've you've got your parking ticket. You contested it, then you moved house, and then you've forgotten about it. And then.
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David Antwis
Years later, who knows? It comes back to you and it's you have to sell your house to pay for it or something. But but.
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David Antwis
Umm.
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David Antwis
Yeah.
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Steve Tomkinson
Yeah, well, that's what happens, isn't it? You know, and that's the problem. And now, of course, everybody's interested now because it's the data is now £1500. You know where it was, it might have been 150 pounds bucket fine.
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Steve Tomkinson
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
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David Antwis
Where there are much better to sort it out at the beginning of a much, much earlier point in time, yeah.
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Steve Tomkinson
So you know, OK, it's a kind of a trying to be a positive spend, but it's.
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Steve Tomkinson
It is. It's just a real thing. And the people we're now talking to that are, you know, collection companies, they manage companies, debts for them. They can now take on different profiles of debt because they can because they would never be able to put a human agent on something that was £120.00 debt or a £200 debt because it's too. It's not enough, you know, to do it just.
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David Antwis
Just wait and listen mobile, hmm?
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David Antwis
Well.
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David Antwis
Sure.
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Steve Tomkinson
Yeah, it just, but they can't collect it, even if that's part of a whole profile of debt that they're buying. And then they can't, they can't do it because it just doesn't efficient, you know, cost them more than the that they're likely to recover because there's always a percentage there won't recover. They're just is. And that's what. That's what will happen. But.
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Steve Tomkinson
You know, if you can be as efficient as a human agent and collecting it, there is no other.
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Steve Tomkinson
You know more efficient way.
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Steve Tomkinson
But it costs you 30% of what it would have a human agent, then that you're you're in.
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David Antwis
Yeah.
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Steve Tomkinson
You know, you, you, you're engraving, then you know. So it works really, really well.
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Steve Tomkinson
I mean, look, it also makes larger debts more efficient as well. So you know there's no.
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Steve Tomkinson
Doesn't matter which way you're going with this and all those things make sense, you know, but it you can basically.
0:12:45.130 --> 0:12:53.580
Steve Tomkinson
Use this as you would your your own team. It can work alongside your own team and a whilst maybe other technology in your business.
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David Antwis
Umm.
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Steve Tomkinson
I'm comes up to speed, you know. So before it integrations and things like that, you know into, you know, online payment methods or whatever it may be.
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Steve Tomkinson
We can do those integrations, but if you're not quite ready, well, we'll keep it simple. We make the calls, get them out.
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David Antwis
Yeah.
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Steve Tomkinson
You know, make a difference to the bottom line straight away from day one.
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David Antwis
It's not one-size-fits-all, is it OK?
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Steve Tomkinson
No, no, not not usually. Although we've got the problem methodology now so that that works quite well and we can bring the best of breed from that to a scenario that you might have. So it kind of makes sense from that perspective as well.
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David Antwis
Alright.
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Steve Tomkinson
As I suppose that's kind of wrapping it up, I mean, you know, as far as I'm concerned, this use case is so strong now that it needs to be consideration for any anybody in this sector, whether you manage your own internally as a larger company or whether you you are a collection company yourself, you know this is a.
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Steve Tomkinson
This is now such a powerful technology that, like I said at the top of the the podcast, this is not experimental anymore. This is proven that it's working for clients that we've got. You know, we've got really compelling figures that are now just makes sense, you know.
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David Antwis
You know.
0:14:21.110 --> 0:14:27.400
Steve Tomkinson
You know that that one and I was looking at the other day 362% increase in collections.
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David Antwis
But.
0:14:28.400 --> 0:14:31.280
Steve Tomkinson
At actual cash through the door.
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Steve Tomkinson
After after deploying the technology because they could scale it because they could hit everybody, you know it, it just makes sense. It just makes sense. So against those figures you to not to do it really.
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David Antwis
That is a big number to end on and.
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Steve Tomkinson
It is absolutely.
0:14:50.530 --> 0:14:53.650
David Antwis
Even and I'm still thinking through the the.
0:14:54.610 --> 0:14:59.710
David Antwis
The kind of the philosophical aspects of it, but the bottom line is pretty good, isn't it? Yeah.
0:14:59.510 --> 0:15:12.540
Steve Tomkinson
Oh, yeah, well, look, you know, I look, we're all businesses and the businesses have to have to be efficient and have to be as smart as they can these days. And you know, all the figures make sense. Like I said, straight from a pilot.
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David Antwis
Yeah, yeah.
0:15:13.420 --> 0:15:37.110
Steve Tomkinson
It's already compelling figures, so you know they're just rolled out. It's it's always is, you know, it's very, very rare. We don't get a roll out from a pilot to production and then it runs and grows and becomes a widely used technology within a business. But this debt collection use case very important, I think it's it's super powerful.
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David Antwis
Ohh, I'm impressed with it.
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David Antwis
I think we've covered that then, right? Yeah.
0:15:45.820 --> 0:15:46.900
David Antwis
Thank you, Steve.
0:15:43.510 --> 0:15:47.210
Steve Tomkinson
Yeah. Yeah. No, thanks very much. Yeah, thanks for letting me bang on.
0:15:49.170 --> 0:15:52.190
David Antwis
Well, yeah, that was thought provoking as as well as.
0:15:53.220 --> 0:15:53.600
David Antwis
Uh.
0:15:54.430 --> 0:16:2.700
David Antwis
Yeah, interesting every way, right. Well, I hope everyone else enjoyed it as much as I did. Learning some things there.
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David Antwis
Remember, you're always welcome to contact us if there's a topic you'd like us to cover. But till next time.
0:16:13.590 --> 0:16:14.90
David Antwis
Goodbye.
0:16:14.770 --> 0:16:16.320
Steve Tomkinson
All right. Cheers. Thanks very much.
0:16:16.620 --> 0:16:17.280
David Antwis
Thank you, Steve.