Collection law firms that want to improve recovery rates and expand their business need to think about taking a digital-first approach. That’s where debt collection software for law firms can help. In this post, we’re going to cover why more firms should go digital-first, the importance of leveraging the right email strategy, the power AI can offer and more! 

Why Collection Law Firms Should Consider Going Digital-First

There are a variety of benefits for collection law firms that make the move to go digital-first:

• Operational Efficiency: Manual collections require law firms to hire more staff to effectively scale and/or dive deeper into existing portfolios. A debt collection software that specializes in automating digital communication channels takes the cost out of that process. A firm’s existing staff can manage a higher volume of accounts and connect with account holders through channels they prefer. *(Retain is software designed to augment attorney workflow. All final communication templates and delivery schedules remain under the ultimate “meaningful involvement” and control of a firm’s licensed attorneys.) 

• Opportunity for Higher Cure Rates: The majority of consumers prefer to be contacted through digital channels like email and text by businesses. When a collection law firm leverages digital channels, their collection messages are more likely to be engaged with. Plus, some debt collection software uses AI to continually look for the best time, message and channel for each individual account holder. 

• Digital Channel Preferences: A McKinsey survey found that roughly 59% of consumers prefer email as a first point of contact. And 65% of consumers want their payment reminders to be sent through text. According to TrueML’s research, contacting a consumer through their preferred channel can lead to a 10% increase in payments. 

Email Goes Beyond Hitting Send – Email Deliverability Matters

Email is often the first step that many collection law firms take when implementing a digital-first strategy. While there are plenty of platforms out there that can send emails for law firms, only a select few have proven email deliverability expertise to help get messages seen.

When your business sends an email to an account holder, their email service provider could reject it, or assign it a tag like spam to the message. To make this decision, email providers look at subscriber interaction, the types of emails being sent, a recent history of the sender’s reputation and more. Email deliverability can be a challenge for collection law firms since they’re more likely to do bulk sends that could trigger spam filters and diminish their domain reputation. 

All this means just because a recipient’s email provider accepts a message, it still might not make it into their inbox. However, there is debt collection software like Retain that has a dedicated team of email deliverability experts that help law firms with best practices like maintaining list hygiene and reputation management with ISPs so that more collection emails make it to account holders’ inboxes. 

The Power of AI-Driven Engagement in Digital Debt Collection 

Traditional collection law firms might segment portfolios in a semi-manual process using standard variables like the balance owed. Strategies like this can achieve some success, but firms are likely leaving money on table by not honoring consumer preferences. A digital-first approach using debt collection software that’s AI-powered can go beyond segmentation and tailor outreach based on consumer behavior and preferences. 

AI can effectively analyze portfolios using past consumer interactions to help find the right message, time and channel for each account. The AI can update its process in real-time for each account based on what is driving payment and what isn’t. 

Going Digital-First for Collections Often Isn’t Difficult

The thought of using debt collection software to adopt a digital-first approach might seem daunting for some firms. Tech overhauls can often be costly in both money and time. However, this isn’t the case with every option out there. Debt collection software like Retain can plug into existing systems (like CRMs) so firms don’t have to rebuild their entire tech stack to get the benefits of digital-first communications. AI-powered debt collection software is often designed to be easy for law staff to use and manage. 

Spend Less to Recover More with Retain Debt Collection Software

Retain is white-label debt collection software that lets your law firm scale collections communications without ballooning operating costs and find more first-time payments in portfolios by sending digital communications at scale. 

Retain allows for jurisdictional-based logic, ensuring that a firm can automatically include specific state-mandated disclosures in emails based on the consumer’s residence. If you’re ready to jump-start your digital-first collections strategy, our team is here to help. Talk to Retain today! 

From case management and collecting signatures to sending debt collection notices, manual tasks can be a major drain on resources. The good news is that there’s AI software designed to help streamline many of the essential tasks law firms carry out every day. From making it easier to train new employees to collections optimization, we’re going to share five of the best software solutions for law firms. 

1. MyCase – Legal Case Management Software

When you’re in the legal industry, you know that it can be challenging to keep case information and documents organized. Since many law firms take a more traditional approach to day-to-day case management, software companies like MyCase saw an opportunity to help. One area where MyCase can really help law firms save time is with the client intake process. 

The software lets law firms easily set up intake templates that can be customized to specific areas of law. With digital templates, law firms won’t have to worry about time-consuming manual data entry or duplicating efforts in capturing a prospective client’s details. It also helps reduce the time it takes for law firms to onboard new clients, giving attorneys more time back to work on other important tasks. 

2. Retain by TrueML Products – Debt Collection Software

If your law firm sends out debt collection notifications through traditional or digital channels, Retain can reduce your OpEx while improving performance. Retain is white-label debt collection software that uses machine learning to optimize the collections communication process. For example, your law firm can easily send branded and compliant Electronic Validation Notices (EVNs) to customers without adding more employees. 

For example, Retain debt collection software gives your law firm the ability to deliver tailored messages to your customers’ preferred channel for better engagement. By leveraging machine learning, Retain helps law firms who specialize in debt collection the ability to engage more accounts than what’s possible manually. This lets your business strategically focus employees’ time where it matters most. 

Retain is debt collection software that seamlessly integrates with your existing debt collection CRM. You won’t have to overhaul your current system to see results. Retain works alongside them to power digital communications with smarter, data-driven efficiency.

3. Loom – Screen Recording Software 

Loom is screen recording software that can make training more efficient for law firms. Instead of long in-person meetings, lengthy emails or long training documents, Loom gives law firms the ability to create a library of training videos for new employees. Instead of meetings filling up the calendar, new employees can watch the training videos at their own pace whenever they have time. This gives managers more time back in their day by cutting down on the need for one-on-one training sessions. 

This software is also great for providing detailed feedback on new employee work. For example, a supervising attorney can record themself reviewing a contract, motion or other document prepared by new attorneys. Oftentimes a quick video explanation can replace a lengthy email summary or 30-minute meeting. Plus, part of Loom’s AI capability includes removing filler words from recordings so you can record training videos in less takes. 

4. DocuSign & Ironclad – Electronic Signatures

Your law firm is likely already using DocuSign which makes it easier to get the signatures you need digitally. Ironclad is an AI software for contract lifecycle management that easily integrates with DocuSign to offer a comprehensive solution. This partnership gives your law firm access to useful AI tools like contract analysis and risk assessments across the agreement lifecycle. Ironclad will scan documents to help make sure they align with your firm’s standards and policies.  

Many law firms use DocuSign for some documents, but it is much more viable now that the software company has launched remote online notarization in some states. DocuSign wants to limit the challenges of paper-based notarization by digitizing the experience. This extension of the software lets law firms, their clients and customers connect to an encrypted video session to notarize documents. With this feature, paper-based notarization won’t slow your pace of business again. 

5. CoCounsel Legal – Legal Specialized LLM

CoCounsel is a large language model (LLM) that’s based on OpenAI technology. This AI legal assistant is specifically trained for the legal industry. It can help your law firm conduct research, analyze documents and help you create deliverables more efficiently. This tool gives lawyers the ability to spend less time on the research phase so that they get to drafting and high level strategy faster. 

Another key feature of this AI software is that it uses dedicated servers on GPT-4. Which means all the data you go through isn’t used to train the model that is public facing. This helps ensure that you’re honoring confidentiality while still tapping into the power of an LLM. 

*Disclaimer: The solutions highlighted in this post are provided as representative examples of AI applications in the legal sector. TrueML Products does not endorse or recommend any specific vendor and encourages firms to perform their own due diligence before selecting a tool.

Collections Optimization is Easy with Retain 

Is your law firm ready to scale up accounts while scaling down OpEx? Retain debt collection software automates digital communications to more effectively engage consumers and facilitate repayment. 

Our team of experts is ready to help your law firm with collections optimization so that you can collect more at any scale. Schedule your free consultation today! 

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. 

Wondering How to Improve Debt Recovery Rates? Retain Can Help

The process of adopting AI to help with core aspects of your law firm’s business can feel overwhelming, but Retain makes it easy. If you’re ready to start engaging consumers more effectively and efficiently, schedule a consultation today. Together, we can automate your digital communications and lower the cost of your debt recovery efforts. 

With Retain by TrueML Products, law firms are able to work smarter—not harder—to improve outreach and recover faster by automating digital communications to reach customers when and where they are most likely to engage. Whether looking at pre-suit, post-suit/pre-judgment, or post-judgment, Retain’s SaaS solution can lower servicing costs, increase profits, and help your collection communications stay in compliance. 

Let’s look at six key ways Retain helps law firms optimize their operations budgets.

1. Avoid and Mitigate Increasing Paper and Postage Costs by Going Digital

 Stop buying stamps and start hitting “send” on digital communications to kickstart budget optimization. 

Sending Model Validation Notices (MVNs) and Initial Demand Letters (IDLs) is already expensive with the cost of stamps increasing in price five times since 2021 and another 7.8% increase in 2024—but law firms can mitigate the financial burden associated with physical mailings by leveraging Retain’s digital platform. Retain’s Electronic Validation Notice (EVN) enables law firms to spend less by sending this first communication digitally, automating the delivery process, and engaging past-due customers more efficiently at scale.

2. Re-Focus FTEs on Business Goals

It’s not just snail mail that’s expensive—full-time employees (FTEs) are many firm’s largest expenses. Imagine increasing the right-party-contact (RPC) rate while decreasing your outbound calls and turn those FTEs into inbound agents who work with customers to set up affordable payment plans rather than spend their days chasing consumers that are avoiding you. 

Use Retain to drive consumers to your payment portal and reallocate FTE resources to high value customer interactions and increase market share. 

• 4x increased agent efficiency 
• 75% reduction in required FTE for customer outreach

3. Ensure Successful Digital Delivery to Drive Engagement and Repayment 

Prompting customers to engage digitally or through self-serve options saves FTE resources, reduces paper and postage costs, and enables scalability without additional headcount. In fact, studies have found that digital-first customers contacted digitally make 12% more payments than those contacted via traditional channels—and better delivery and deliverability rates increase that engagement (because what good does it do if your message never reaches their inbox?). 

Deliver Rates:

• Retain Average Delivery Rate: 98.6%
• Average Industry Rate: 90%

Deliverability Rates:

• Retain Average Deliverability Rate: 87%
• Average Industry Rate: 84.8%

Open Rates:

• Retain Average Open Rate: 41.71%
• Industry Average Open Rate: 36.5%

Click-Through Rates:

• Retain Average Click-Through Rate: 2.99%
• Industry Average Click-Through Rate: 1.4%

4. Built-In Best Practices to Meet Compliance Requirements for Delinquent Consumer Communications

Retain features code-based compliance functionality informed by debt collection industry standards that you can set up to suit your organization’s delinquent communication needs, including:

• Strict ownership and deliverability checks
• Guardrails for safely delivering emails and SMS based on best practices for sending frequency and using customers’ local times
• Easily restrict your messaging by state or set your desired state disclosures
• Accumulate a digital paper trail to reference for audits and other compliance purposes

Best practices are baked into our code-based compliance rules and designed so law firms can meet all requirements necessary to deliver communications electronically to consumers in debt, like with our EVN features. Have questions? Retain’s industry-leading experts are available to help clarify and guide clients to make the best decisions to stay within regulation for debt collection.

5. Pros of Implementing Ready-to-Use Strategic SaaS Solutions vs Cons of Building and Maintaining In-House

Whether you are looking to evaluate your current strategy or jumpstart new communication channels to better engage all your customers, it’s important to consider the pros and cons for your budget between building in-house engagement programs versus working with a partner.

With Retain SaaS Solutions you can expect:

• Ready-to use, patented machine learning engine informed by nearly 6 million customer engagements
• Ability to scale operations without adding headcount
• Dedicated Email Operations and Deliverability Team proactively monitors and makes adjustments
• Email and SMS compliance functionality at scale 

If you build it you:

• Need expertise in digital optimization, data science, deliverability, and digital experience 
• Implement and automate email and/or SMS messaging
• Dedicate a team to stay on top of monitoring, adjusting, and maintaining relationships with ISPs and SMS carriers
• Make sure design and content can be read on both computers and mobile devices 

6. Go Beyond Segmentation with More Intelligent Engagement Strategy 

While all use cases aim to help law firms achieve repayment, Retain is built on advanced machine learning technology 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.

By leveraging data science and analytics in automated communications to send messages at the right time through the right channel, law firms can apply a more sophisticated strategy going beyond basic segmentation for delinquent consumer engagement.

Ready to Get Started?

Automating digital communications to reach your customers when and where they are most likely to engage can help optimize law firms’ operations budget. 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. 

Start engaging customers more efficiently and effectively by scheduling a consultation today»»

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 law firms 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.

It’s time to stop buying stamps and start hitting “send” when it comes to delivering validation notices to past-due customers. Learn how to improve your communication with consumers in a digital channel that results in faster account resolution by scheduling a consultation here»»

Sources: 

• Bankrate
• McKinsey
• FICO