Any law firm that has a collections program would benefit from digital customer engagement methods that lower their servicing costs per file while generating more customer engagement, leading to increased revenue potential and earning more placements from clients.
Initial Demand Letters (IDL) or validation notices serve as one of the first steps towards reclaiming owed funds compliantly—but just as the name suggests, IDLs have traditionally been mailed out to recipients through physical letters. Since 71% of today's consumers prefer to conduct financial business digitally, not only are paper letters a costly line item, but sending snail mail doesn’t garner good engagement or repayment outcomes.
Traditional Communication Methods Can’t Compete with Consumers’ Digital Preferences
When you take into consideration that contacting first through a customer’s preferred channel can lead to a more than 10% increase in payments and 59.5% of consumers prefer email as their first choice for communication, it is clear that direct mail isn’t just expensive thanks to the price of paper and stamps, but it can also negatively impact repayment rates from late-payers who prefer digital contact.
Fortunately, there is a way to deliver required validation notices to consumers via email and still be fully compliant. But while switching from physical letters to digital notifications can significantly reduce paper and postage costs along with providing a compliant digital “paper trail” for law firms and businesses required to send Initial Demand Letters (IDL) to recover delinquent funds, it’s not as easy as copying the sample model validation notice into an email.
With so many compliance nuances and the technical infrastructure required to make the switch from paper letters to electronic mail, attempting to send IDLs via email can be more of an undertaking for in-house teams to execute efficiently and effectively.
Enter Retain by TrueML Products. Whether looking at pre-suit, post-suit/pre-judgment, or post-judgment, Retain helps law firms lower their servicing costs, increase profits, and stay in compliance.
Retain’s Software-as-a-Service Solutions for Law Firms
Retain is a scalable, client-branded digital delivery tool that businesses can use to manage sending required notifications and optimize customer engagement. Retain’s Electronic Validation Notices (EVNs) get into 87% of the actual inboxes sent to—and provides feedback about which accounts may respond better to collection efforts via phone or snail mail.
Retain empowers businesses and enhances customer engagement by:
- Cost Reduction: Businesses can mitigate the financial burden associated with physical mailings by leveraging Retain’s digital platform.
- Automation: Retain automates the delivery process of communications, expediting consumer engagement and alleviating the need for manual interjections.
- Scalability: Accommodating organizations of all sizes, Retain’s scalable architecture offers a versatile solution tailored to individual needs in real time.
- Deliverability: With a deliverability rate of 87%, Retain can help ensure your EVNs and other messages make it to your recipients and give you the best chance at productive engagement in debt recovery.
- Documentation: Sending notifications and communications via email provides a digital “paper trail” that can easily be organized for any audit purposes and documentation for compliance needs.
And beyond EVNs, Retain’s robust solution can be applied to many use cases for law firms.
Specific Law Firm Use Cases for Retain
While all use cases aim to help law firms achieve repayment, Retain offers features and functionality for law firms to achieve effective engagement no matter where the consumer may be in the process—from pre-suit to post-judgment and all the stepping stones in between.
Let’s look at how law firms can engage consumers in each of the potential phases an account may pass through based on the timelines and activities on that account.
Pre-Suit
Avoiding litigation by way of settlements is one of the biggest opportunities for improvement for most firms—and digital engagement is key to leveraging this opportunity. Most firms send their demand letter out and then wait for their first settlements after the files receive their suit, which is why most firms only settle roughly 1% of their Pre-Suit files. Whereas Retain’s law firm clients are getting settlement plans on at least 7% of their Pre-Suit accounts that use Retain. More numbers from one of Retain’s clients using the solution for Pre-Suit communications:
- 70%+ email opens each month
- 4%+ email clicks each month
Post-Suit, Pre-Judgment
The consumers that have reached this phase have the highest propensity to pay, representing a great opportunity for law firms to not only collect but save on costs as well. Consumers in this category are highly motivated to resolve before judgment comes down. Collecting during prejudgment can help save time and litigation and can lead to faster payment and lower court costs. Engaging with consumers early in this phase can also ensure law firms are paid before the debtor runs out of assets.
Post-Judgment
Once consumers have rolled into this phase, attempts to recover debts often diminish for law firms due to the strain it puts on full-time employees (FTE) and the costs accrued with sending physical letters and outbound dialing. But with digital communications sent via Retain, these accounts can still be worked with minimal effort, and the more law firms engage, the more law firms recoup. In fact, one of Retain’s law firm clients was able to collect $96K (after client fees & costs) from accounts in their post-judgment inventory without a letter sent or a call made.
And Don’t Forget Payment Reminders for Settlement Plans
Regardless of what phase a consumer may fall in, if they have agreed to a settlement plan, one of the simplest ways to keep repayment on track is with payment reminders. Even if law firms have integrated email into their communication outreach, it can often be a manual process or a mass blast campaign that ignores the nuances of a true engagement strategy. Retain provides not only a platform to send digital reminders—both email and SMS—but it also helps guide the ideal channel and timing to send those messages for each individual consumer.
Bottom-Line Benefits for Law Firms
No matter what use case would be most helpful to your business, these bottom-line benefits will make an impact:
- Improve Your Profits & Market Share: Engage and connect with more accounts than would be possible with manual efforts from FTEs and increase market share
- Maximize Your FTEs’ Efforts: Engaging more accounts digitally allows your FTE to focus their efforts where needed most
- Optimize With Electronic Validation Notices: Switching from physical Initial Demand Letters and other consumer communications to digital notifications (such as EVNs) will significantly reduce paper and postage costs
Retain makes these benefits accessible to any business or law firm, regardless of their familiarity with digital communications, and offers EVNs as both a feature integrated within our larger service offerings or as a stand-alone solution.