For more mobility, debt collection services must become more agile too

If their own customers wish to live out the spirit of the age of digitalisation and be more flexible and independent, companies must respond accordingly, otherwise they will have difficulty staying viable in the marketplace. For a long time cashless payment, networked systems or digital handling of ordering and sales processes were a nice-to-have. Now end customers simply take them for granted.

For me it’s crystal clear:

To stand out from their competitors companies must operate as agilely and as digitally as possible, not only with respect to their core product but also in debt collection services.

If this is done right, the dunning and collection process can thus become a USP.

For me, two success factors are of overriding significance here: firstly, customer-oriented solutions are required and secondly industry-specific technologies and applications. Your end customer would like to be personally addressed, not only when purchasing a ticket but also in the event that problems arise. If it happens that a customer fails to make payment and you have to contact him/her, depending on the individual in question they may prefer to be contacted by letter, e-mail or text message.

Customer-oriented solutions

For me customer centricity means orienting one’s entire communication and all work processes individually towards the end customer. Based on experience a key component of this is, for example, the choice of the preferred communication channel. It is also important, in my view, to take into account the end customer’s personal financial situation. Agreeing on payment in instalments or granting a deferral can have a huge influence on the customer’s goodwill and increase the likelihood of prompt settlement of the outstanding receivables.

Industry-specific technologies

A basic requirement for a company to be able to individually adapt to every single end customer’s needs are high quality processes, data and systems. For that reason our solutions in debt collection services are specifically tailored to the needs of the mobility industry. An example of this is our industry solution Ticketcheck, which enables ticket inspectors to check address data in real time during the checking process. Possible spelling mistakes are then directly corrected and the specified address is checked for correctness. This solution greatly improves data quality. A further resource is CMP, our central mobility IT platform, which is a solution for end-to-end processes. The platform has a modular structure and various portals and systems for processing insolvencies, lawsuits and customer matters are connected to the solution.

One of these modules is the self-service portal. Here different players, such as end customers or companies, can interact with each other. All processes and customer enquiries relating to debt collection services can be processed as a bundled whole. The end customer receives a link by text message or e-mail which leads him/her directly to the portal. An appropriate QR code is also printed on the receipts. Thanks to the fully digital customer journey and an optimum selection of all the most popular payment methods, claims can be easily and conveniently settled on the portal and railcards activated in real time. We therefore offer the consumer clear added value and at the same time strengthen the bond between you and your customer. This for me is a real example of customer centricity in practice.