How PayCourt Reduced The Breakage of Promise-To-Pay Plans by 20% Using Text Messaging

Challenge

PayCourt’s agents often found themselves asking defendants if they had a pen handy to capture payment plan information. They knew there was a better way to communicate with their defendants.

Implementation

Wanting a more efficient process, PayCourt became interested in adding text as a new communication channel. CEO Rick Bonitzer tapped a respected industry colleague for a trusted referral, and he has been an SBT customer ever since. Now compliant, templated text communications have replaced the need for pens, giving his agents more control over the collection conversation and serving as valuable leave-behinds.

Benefits

Prevented Payment Fails

“Unsecured payment plans in our industry are notorious for breaking and failing, so any measurable improvement in payment plans is significant,” Bonitzer says. “We rely heavily on text for payment plan reminders and past due notices. With SBT, we have seen a 20% reduction in promise-to-pays breaking.”

Provided a Frictionless Customer Experience

“SBT’s unmatched ability to provision short codes means our texts have a higher deliverability success rate than 10-digit long codes,” Bonitzer explains. “Higher deliverability leads to higher RPC (right-party contact) rates, which result in two-way texting conversations. I’ve got an agent right now who is inundated with two-way text messages. Believe me, that’s the best problem to have, because once you get the connection, you’ve got a better chance of getting money on that account.” Bonitzer also believes SBT’s single sign-on smart link for PayCourt’s payment portal will lead to a higher volume of payments because of its frictionless experience for defendants.

Improved Operational Efficiency

By replacing paper forms with digital two-way text as their method of setting up and finalizing payment plans, PayCourt not only generated higher revenue, but also substantially reduced broken payment plans.

• Labor and Time-saving Efficiencies: Fewer broken payment plans have decreased the need for follow-up by agents.
• Resources Optimized: More payments through the PayCourt payment portal have freed up agents to focus their efforts elsewhere.

PayCourt is already planning ahead for enhanced SBT platform features coming soon, such as being able to attach documents like a Paid-in-Full letter, creating cost savings in printing and mailing. “I just text you the letter,” Bonitzer says. “How cool is that?”