Debt collection and consolidation forms a major part of the projects allotted to outbound call center teams. Doing it more often than not doesn't make the job any easier for these agents. They are under constant pressure to get the target callers to come at a settlement. The idea is to make the customer allow the client company to settle down his debts through the various services on offer. The job becomes difficult for a number of reasons. Many customers are not willing to talk about their debts and finances with random BPO agents. Many of them are paranoid about their money and transactions. They would never allow call center agents to access information relating to their financial assets and other bank details. In this hostile atmosphere, the call center agent has to come up with a service sale.
The first trick that the outbound call center agent needs to know is to make grounds for the customer to trust. Trust is the key to anything to do with finances. If the target caller somehow finds a reassuring aspect to the call center agent's voice, he/she will most likely be willing to talk about finances. Trust comes naturally and your BPO agent has to be experienced or just naturally gifted. Training helps too. You can train the agents to be persuasive and not confrontational. Your target caller is on the back foot anyway because of the problems of debt. If your agent is too aggressive to push for sales, it might just clamp up the target caller. Sensitive matters need delicate handling and when it comes to selling debt consolidation services, this is a must.
Next up is the outbound call center person's need to pacify the caller before speaking about services and policies. A hassled person in debt would never be open to listen to logic and reason upfront. The call center agent would most likely be talking to a person frantic to get the debt off his shoulders. Sometimes they may be expecting too much from the client company's services. It's very necessary to ground the person before his excitement to get help misleads him. The BPO agent has to make him understand clearly from the very beginning how much he needs to pay and how much the services can help him. No false hopes should creep in. It becomes difficult to deal with them later on, when the person has already paid a few installments.
Debt collection and consolidation makes up for a significant chunk of the call center revenue. There is a lot of scope for work in this sector. But to achieve success in this, your outbound call center team should be on the top of their game. The fact that your BPO agents need to be sensitive here adds an element of unpredictability. To get success with debt consolidation, your agents have to learn a lot of consumer psychology. It's not easy to provide monetary relief without walking through a tight rope. That only the best business outsourcing firms take it up is a testimony to that.
