What Are Connect Rate and Right-Party Contact (RPC)?
Debt collection agencies invest time and resources in getting in touch with consumers. In theory, all it takes for a collector to speak with a consumer is to hit the call button, but in reality, it’s not that simple; oftentimes, the number is wrong, the consumer does not answer the phone, or the wrong person picks up the phone.
Connect rate and right-party contact rate are two metrics that significantly affect the outbound operations of a contact center.
Connect rate measures the percentage of successful attempts a collector makes in which someone picks up the phone. Right-party contact rate is the percentage of calls in which an agent is able to connect with the target consumer, which could be either the debtor or a relative who has been given permission to handle the debt. Right-party contact (RPC) is the most accurate measure of the effectiveness of an agency’s outbound calling efforts.
| ☎️ Factors that affect connect and right-party contact rates |
| ❌ Wrong number |
| ⛔️ Busy line |
| 💬 No answer |
| 📩 Voicemail |
| 🙅🏽♀️ Wrong party answers the phone |
Why Right-Party Contact Can Be a Challenge for Collection Agencies
Collectors know it very well: reaching consumers can be tricky.
Given the limitations imposed by the TCPA and the FDCPA, collectors can’t call debtors at any given time of the day. While timing is everything, even a well-staffed agency can only contact consumers so many times in order to reach them, as the number of available collectors is limited and you don’t want them to spend too much time trying to reach the same numbers too often.
Right-party contact can be a serious challenge for collection agencies. Collectors (and their managers) want to spend as much time as possible actually speaking to consumers and collecting payments — and as little time as possible trying to reach people on the phone. Calls not resulting in RPC don’t lead to a collection (nor a commission for the collector), and result in an overall waste of resources.
This is where automation and artificial intelligence come into play.
Dive deeper: What Is Call Automation and How Can It Impact Debt Collections?
How Voice AI Solves the RPC Issue for ARM Companies
With rising costs, high attrition rates, and a looming recession, ARM companies are looking at digital transformation and automation as valid solutions to their operational challenges.
Contact centers in all industries have been relying on automatic dialing systems (or auto dialer software) for decades. These systems make the dialing process faster and easier, boosting agent productivity; in addition to queueing calls and dialing the target number automatically, they also screen out inactive numbers, busy lines, and answering machines, drastically improving the contact center’s connect rate.
But what about right-party contact?
Once the collector reaches a person on the phone, they must establish whether the person they are speaking to is the right party (the consumer or debtor) or not. The right party could also be a third party (a person authorized to handle the debt or an attorney representing the debtor). This process can take a few minutes.
With a Voice AI solution like Skit.ai, a Digital Voice Agent (DVA) handles the actual call — rather than just the dialing process. Once someone picks up the phone, the DVA can easily confirm right-party contact and engage with the debtor, offering ways to pay off their debt. If needed, the DVA can transfer the call to a live agent, who can assist with more complex queries.
The entire process is faster and cheaper and allows the collection agency to save time and money. Below, you can see a step-by-step summary of how a Digital Voice Agent handles a debt collection call:
Learn more: What to Look for When Purchasing a Voice AI Solution for Debt Collections
Are you interested in learning how Voice AI can transform your collection agency’s results? Schedule a call with one of Skit.ai’s experts using the chat tool below.