Did you know that law firms only collect roughly 84% of the bills they send out to consumers? Those missed opportunities can add up to tens of thousands of dollars of lost revenue, directly impacting the profitability of the business. It’s one of the main reasons why many law firms build their own debt recovery strategies to help offset this potential loss.
Since many facets of the legal industry still happen mostly on paper, figuring out how to implement cutting edge technology is often a challenge. If your business is trying to figure out how to improve debt recovery rates, the answer can be found in AI, specifically machine learning. Join the experts at Retain as we explore how AI can boost the debt recovery performance for your law firm.
AI Gives FTEs More Time to Invest in Business Goals
For many law firms in the U.S., the debt recovery process has full time employees (FTEs) moving things forward manually. FTEs pour over spreadsheets and print out compliant notices to send through the mail. Or maybe they are using an automation platform to send emails in an effort to digitize part of the process.
Both of these tactics have some substantial drawbacks. The process of sending notices through the mail is tedious, and the cost of postage continues to go up. With email, law firms need to be careful to not damage their domain reputation when using an email automation platform. Without an optimized strategy, your emails could end up going to spam folders more often. One of the main benefits of AI software is that it intelligently automates the time consuming tasks in debt recovery.
Instead of your FTEs spending hours chasing customers and trying to connect with them, an AI digital engagement platform can find the right channel, time and message each consumer is most likely to respond to. This frees up FTEs to focus their efforts on more important tasks, saving your business time and money.
Break Free from A One-Size-Fits All Approach
As a law firm collecting debts, you know that every consumer is different. Your approach to working with them changes based on the nuances of their case, personality and a variety of other factors. Shouldn’t your debt recovery communications follow the same logic? For many law firms, the personalized approach with consumers doesn’t translate over to debt recovery. It’s common for the business to have three to seven notifications that are sent through the same channel.
AI fixes this issue. It offers law firms access to recovery communication content that is personalized to a consumer’s preferences. A white-label digital delivery software-as-a-service tool (SaaS) like Retain uses analytics and data from the legal industry to create communications that lead to higher debt recovery performance. Think of this application of AI as a specialized software tool that delivers content so it’s more likely to be seen by consumers.Debt recovery customization isn’t just about content, the channel your message goes through is just as important. In fact, contacting a consumer through their preferred channel first can increase the likelihood of them making a payment by 10%. If your law firm is only reaching out to consumers through one channel, you could be missing out on substantial revenue.
AI Helps Law Firms Streamline Debt Recovery Compliance
When a law firm is sending out debt recovery notices, there’s no shortage of regulations and compliance rules to follow. If it’s being done manually by FTE’s, keeping track of federal and state requirements is often a challenge. One mistake or flash of human error has the potential to cost the business thousands of dollars. AI software-as-a-service (SaaS) platforms for debt recovery solutions take the hassle out of compliance.
There are AI SaaS tools like Retain that leverage code-based compliance. That means the regulatory rules your law firm has to follow for debt recovery are embedded into your program. The AI puts up compliance guardrails that eliminate the risk of human error and can easily be updated to stay up to date with regulatory changes. Consumer laws and regulations your law firm has to comply with can be accounted for all while creating a consumer-friendly experience for your delinquent accounts.
AI Amplifies Your Debt Recovery Efforts to Engage with More Accounts
As we mentioned before, there’s only so many hours FTEs have to connect with delinquent accounts. An AI white-label SaaS tool supercharges your law firm’s efforts by continuously learning and working in the background. It’s like having a team of dedicated FTEs focused on optimizing your debt recovery strategy and communications. As your law firm scales and has more delinquent accounts, AI helps ensure that debt recovery can scale without needing additional resources.
With some AI software, it’s important to know that by engaging more accounts, your debt recovery efforts will improve over time. The AI will learn the nuances of your consumer base and identify the right channel, message and time they’re most likely to engage with. The end result of your law firm leveraging AI in this capacity is spending less to collect more.