If you have a chance, listen to a brief but interesting discussion regarding the use of Facebook, text messages, and email to contact debtors.
While there may be some disagreement regarding the legality of using those channels to communicate with debtors, it’s clear that we need to start having these discussions. People simply communicate much differently today than they did even a few years ago and the collection world must respond. Within the discussion, a few remarkable statistics compiled by the ACA were cited:
- 85% of adults in the U.S. own cellphones
- 27% of adults in the U.S. live in a home without a landline
- 130 million U.S. residents use Facebook; and
- 90 trillion emails are sent every year.
Still think snail mail is the best way to reach your debtors? We are paying attention to the trends and have recently begun to explore how we can best use email, text messages, and social media to reach debtors and gather information about them.