Gaining Attention & Encouraging Action
Are you keeping up with your customers? It’s worth considering in your compliance program. Once the judge orders payments due it is the customer’s obligation to pay. And if they don’t pay, penalties apply such as collection agent referrals with late fees and driver’s license suspension.
An active compliance program creates immediate awareness and compliance assistance to customers through managed payment plans. These installment agreements look at ability to pay and consider court payments for all cases in the system. Once initiated a good plan builds in a notifications and reminder system to nudge timely responses.
What does a good notification system look like? Waiting until a payment is late is too late to encourage participation. Notifications need to get in front of the primary issue, to keep payments both continuous and timely.
There are four different notification messages for a payment compliance program.
1. Payment Plan Introductions
2. Payment Due Reminders
3. Payment Thank You Notices
4. Past Due Payment Warning
Once a payment plan is initiated, notify your customer about their payment plan terms and provide a reminder date for their next installment amount and total balance due. Use electronic messaging through emails and text messages that provide an online payment opportunity. Payment reminders keeps your customers better informed about the importance of their payment plan and shows them your role in helping keep track of it. Most importantly, thank your customer for participating.
Prior to the first payment send a payment due reminder notice through email and text message. Why create so much messaging for payments? Notifications have become cheaper to produce using online systems, trigger dates for payment plans, and templates that automatically keep up with customer due dates. Not only has the operation become easier it is effective.
If you wait until payments are overdue, it is harder to get the debt paid. Late penalties suggest payment plan failure for your customer and for you. There is less time to correct or talk over payment circumstances. Customers withdraw or ignore warnings and the plan becomes delinquent. Instead, create a reminder date program that alerts your customer of upcoming payments.
Make sure the notice gives enough time to receive and make payments prior to becoming overdue. Electronic notices are the most effective type of message that includes terms, due dates, and the ability to pay online.
Have you ever considered thank you notices for payments? Why go to the trouble? Electronic messaging becomes much easier to produce. Include in the notice remaining terms, the next due date, a way to pay electronically, and appreciation for the customer’s payment. Acknowledge the effort. This small positive reinforcement will help to keep the next payment timely.
Past due payment notices should remain in your compliance program. Consider paper mail for Past Due Warnings to enforce the failure to pay sanctions as part of the delinquent payment process. Use email and text messaging alerts as an additional tool to reestablish compliance.
An effective notice program creates the right message that keeps your customers informed and their payment plan on track. Use technology to simplify the process and reduce staffing requirements. Each step of the way generate a notice that says, “your payment is due, it is important, I’m here to help, and here is how to get it done.
By putting together a notification program that encourages payments you’ve increased the odds of realizing better collection performance while assisting customers in the process. The tools exist and CIS can help select the ones that work best for you.
Compliance Improvement Services (CIS) provides consulting and training from experienced professionals for courts and local government to help them achieve better compliance in the payment of fines and costs. Our emphasis is on helping our customers help citizens. When you begin building your communication plans on compliance consider contacting CIS.