Industry Innovators Share Insight
MRS BPO Executives Present at inside ARM First Party Summit
MRS encourages innovation, emphasizes best service practices, and prioritizes customer experience. The company will share their insight at the inside ARM First Party Summit. Chris Repholz, Chief Customer Officer, and Michael Meyer, Chief Risk and Chief Security Officer, will speak at the event at the Omni Frisco Hotel in Frisco, Texas. Repholz, presenting on Tuesday, June 5, will be partnering with Experian’s Colleen Rose to create an interactive session aimed at driving participants towards creative solutions. Meyer will speak on a panel the following day, Wednesday, June 6, about the “BetterWay,” a strategic project devised to inspire innovation within the industry.
As one of the pioneers of omni-channel communications in the collection industry, MRS utilizes text messages and emails as a way to reach customers who do not answer the phone. These new communication channels yield results. Repholz says, “What we found is that customers that never answer the phone will respond by text. Customers to whom we sent snail mail who’ll never ever answer a letter respond to an email. It’s very clear to us that people don’t just want to be contacted exclusively by phone. There’s a variety of different methods; we want to give people the option to communicate with us the way they want.” It’s important to note that the company maintains emphasis on compliance with regulations as well as pursuing innovation.
The debt collections industry is highly regulated. Compliance with legislation is of the utmost importance and MRS understands the imperative. Repholz says, “MRS always takes compliance as a top priority… That’s always on the forefront of everything we do... The primary challenge we are going to present to our audience is: Let’s identify which barriers exist today, and what do we need to do as an industry to break down those barriers- to give creditors and agencies the channels they need to communicate with the customers the way they [the customers] want to receive communication.”
Omni-channel communication is a fairly recent development in the debt collection industry, therefore there is little legislative language guiding its rules. Compliance with standing regulations is prudently observed. Additionally, MRS prioritizes consent. Repholz says, “We’re always asking our clients to seek broad consent language from their customers that allows them and their affiliates to contact them the way they want to receive communication.” The company places paramount value on customer experience. Repholz says, “We take customer experience very seriously here, so we want an interaction with MRS to be positive… we want to show them [the customer] that this isn’t going to be an adversarial conversation, this is going to be a conversation about finding a solution that works for both parties.”
MRS cultivates an environment of innovation and quarterback of that strategy is Meyer. He will share his perspective on such topics on the “BetterWay” panel. “BetterWay” is an initiative to inspire improvement in the debt collections agency. Meyer says, “The ‘BetterWay’ encompasses a plethora of ideas that will help guide positive change that satisfies customers. For far too long, regulatory restrictions have restrained a lot of people from carrying out transactions that they ordinarily would’ve done through the course of normal communication with customers. I think all of that is about to change. There’s a wave of new thinking and new thought processes.”
“BetterWay” works to create the industry’s best future by reimagining the present. Meyer says, “There is a belief that there will be significant changes in the near future, especially in 2019, that will herald in a lot of these [omni-channel communication] changes so that many things that are currently believed to be restricted will be officially allowed.”
The debt collections industry is ever-changing. The move toward multiple channeled communication with customers creates the opportunity to reach customers whichever way they desire. Looking to the future, Meyer predicts, “Industries will undergo more technological and structural changes in the next 5 years than they have in the last 15 years. What I see is a major shift to AI enabled technology and analytics along with more educated staff, which enables previously unimaginable compliance over today’s traditional call center environment.”
The inside ARM First Party Summit is the only conference of its kind. Its specific focus on first party collections and customer experience uniquely distinguishes the Summit. The event attracts industry innovators to share in growth and knowledge of the debt collections field. Meyer says, “It’s an absolute honor to speak about ways our industry can be improved. The way forward is through a commitment to technology and innovation that meets our customers’ needs.”
Both Repholz and Meyer’s enthusiasm for innovation speaks to the work that MRS does within the collections industry. Repholz says, “We are an innovative company. We like to share what we’re doing with the industry. We feel that if other companies in collections see that innovative companies are doing the types of things we’re doing, and doing it successfully and compliantly, it’ll broaden and improve the industry itself.” The inside ARM First Party Summit will be held from June 4-6 at the Omni Frisco Hotel in Frisco, Texas.