Mail services has been thought, rethought and re-rethought many times through the years. This is not a problem as mail services is a wheel that must be reinvented considering it is such a core element to the collection process. The basics of sending a letter to a consumer remain the same; technology, compliance and mentalities surrounding the idea of letters are continually evolving. It is the duty of every collection professional to take a function like mail services, a function that works, and make it better. This can be done through evaluating what your agency likes about it, what it wants to improve, and what has not yet been explored.
Some professionals advocate the letter preview aspect of mail services. One such advocate is Ryan Kiechle, chief technology officer at REVMD Partners.
“They work great for us, said Kiechle. “The portal allows us to see things and approve things as a safety net.”
“We can make sure nothing happens mistakenly on our other systems,” Kiechle continued. “We can make sure it’s what we really thought was happening.”
No compliance officer would argue that the words in a letter are probably the most important part of a letter. But what about the pictures? While not always pictures, special considerations must be given to the design, colors, and logos used in the letter. Besides giving the letter a strong sense of branding, it can also guide the consumer through visuals to come. Rich Turner, vice president of sales and marketing at RevSpring described how letters can have visual representations of portals a consumer will see on the agency’s website to reduce confusion and hopefully speed up collection.
Aside from the physical letter, many things can influence how letters affect your bottom line. One such item is the US Postal Service. It is important to consider the logistics of how the letter will get to the consumer’s mailbox. The Postal Service has closed many processing centers in the past few years causing delayed delivery in many cases. Consider this in relation to your mail services vendor as well. How do they print? Where are their print facilities relative to mail distribution centers?
Compliance certainly must be considered when considering mail service providers. While an agency’s vendor will not be contacting consumers over the phone, many things can go awry if the vendor is not properly certified. Turner explained the importance of working with a compliant vendor. When selecting a vendor, talk to them about the appropriate certifications and make sure they are up to date.
“We employ built-in business rules in all of our technology solutions, as well as user-defined business rules, to comply with conditions stipulated by data and geography, to ensure your compliance requirements are met in all consumer transactions,” said Turner.
Another aspect a collection professional should consider is the process of putting the whole mail process together. The process of assembling a letter campaign must consider multiple parties: the client, the collection agency, the mail service vendor, the consumer, and the CFPB. Keeping all requirements satisfied for all of these parties must be kept organized from beginning to end or one of them will end up getting a raw deal leading to a lawsuit or loss of a client.
“The details of the business rules and customer requirements must be mapped out in advance and tied to the testing and approval process,” said Turner.
A collection professional must also think about what requirements are not being fulfilled. Voicing these concerns with a vendor and working together to resolve them can help the function of mail service move forward and continue to evolve.
“The biggest thing I would like to see is a much more comprehensive automated process for getting the information back to us,” said Kiechle. “There are lot of things that happen in the mail stream that happen with no trouble.”