Numbers, remnants of paper documents, multiple sources of information, different customers with different regimes and payment situations, more numbers… Although the collection areas play a key and complex role in companies, much of the efforts of those responsible for the area related to collection costs are lost in repetitive tasks with a high manual component that lead to different problems, ranging from job dissatisfaction of employees and higher rates of staff turnover to errors in data loading and deficiencies in the controls. And, specifically in collections, every mistake means money.
Robotic process automation (RPA) comes to correct this situation: it proposes the digitalization of processes related to collection costs through the use of bots that deal with the most tedious and error-prone aspects and leaves strategic issues in the hands of humans, which require a critical eye and are usually the ones that provide the most added value to the business, such as the incorporation of innovative means of payment or personalized treatment with certain types of customers.
How to prevent late payments
How can RPA be applied to reduce collection costs? One of the busiest cases is the automatic sending of late payment notices: before an alert of overdue payment, the system selects the means of communication preferred by the client and sends him a notification. It is even possible to determine a series of preconfigured rules so that the notice is more or less detailed depending on the time of delay in payment or the relative importance of the customer for the organization. Additionally, an automatic advance notice can be sent to the client to anticipate the payment with a proforma even before the date of issuance of the invoice: they are messages of the type “We remind you that on the first business day of next week (3/12/2022) we will be issuing your new invoice”, with details about the amount, the due date and the administrative expenses related to a potential default.
The benefits are multiple: the effort of those responsible for the area is significantly reduced, collections are accelerated, friction with customers is avoided -typical of personal interactions in this type of situation- that even, based on what was commented by that same organization of mass consumption, gradually improve their payment behavior.
It also allows you to manage the limit of each client and disable new operations when the thresholds defined by internal policies have been exceeded. On the other hand, it can be used as a customer retention tool: through automation it is possible to obtain flexible payment reports for each of them based on their history and behavior. This avoids a historical risk: that of treating a systematic debtor in the same way as a compliant customer who falls behind for the first time.
It also highlights the preventive role of automated checks on new customers and their credit or tax situation, key to avoiding future problems.
What payment methods are most common in collection?
The diversification of payment methods is another of the great challenges faced by organizations: information on collections comes from different means, from notifications from banks and virtual wallets to emails or messages from platforms (to which those linked to digital currencies begin to join timidly but with some perseverance) and from customers and the management systems themselves.
This occasionally becomes even more complex in the case of some specific segments, such as retail, which usually receive transfer certificates sent by the customers themselves and must compare them with bank deposits.
Automation not only receives and homogenizes the data, but also establishes the control points, compares it, evaluates arrears and prepares the reports so that analysts must focus only on anomalies or elements that cannot be reconciled. It is estimated that this represents at most 5% of the records processed.
In other words, RPA has a direct impact on reducing collection costs: those responsible for the sector stop using a good part of their time in stacking papers, comparing documents and filling out spreadsheets and start dedicating it to growing the business.
