You will never guess which country is leading customer service

Location, location, location: You'll never guess which country is leading customer service

You're a business with a large consumer base of always-on customers. They expect high-quality service at every hour of the day. They travel, work in the gig economy, and operate on schedules that make the 9-to-5 irrelevant. But now you need to collect on those customers' debts and ensure your relationship with them stays positive. That probably means adding another shift to your customer service team to cover late nights or weekends - it might be costly, but you're ready to do it.

Unfortunately, the labour market is tight. Unemployment rates are low, so hiring isn't easy. Firstsource research shows that 79 percent of companies agree that hiring today is much harder than it was two years ago. And it is becoming increasingly harder to hire front-facing service agents, especially for tension-packed verticals like debt collection. The next generation of workers prioritises flexibility and cites stress as a major factor in job-hopping, making them less likely to seek out high-stress, high-visibility roles like customer-facing debt collection.

Your company still needs to make a shift in customer experience service to improve debt collection returns. Hiring locally is not an option and the current cost to collect is too high, so something has to change. It is time to consider nearshore and offshore capabilities to augment your debt collection operation.

A solution that works

Leveraging Firstsource's geographically diverse delivery footprint, led by an experienced staff, one company found a 70 percent reduction in cost to collect and a 20 percent improvement in debt collections performance.

This client turned to Firstsource to deliver on solutions to those common pain points: hiring, shift coverage, and cost increases. They recognised that what matters in collections is not just where your agent works from - it is making sure that each agent has the time, energy, and knowledge to connect with each customer. It is ensuring that data-driven personalisation runs throughout the debt collections process. It is bringing empathy into every touchpoint, to empower a customer to take control of their debt.

So why don't more companies embrace this model?

A partnership that recovered millions in debt without sacrificing customers

There are a number of objections that come up when it comes to outsourcing debt collections.

One is that external agents won't have the nuanced approach to customer relationships that your company prioritises. Time and again, Firstsource has proven that objection wrong. Take one client: a luxury automobile manufacturer with high-profile clients whose loyalty was extremely valuable to the brand. Many customers had complex situations requiring extensive coordination and delicate conversations, but the company was facing down a wall of debt and knew something needed to change. Firstsource brought in a dedicated and experienced team prepared to provide empathetic, solution-oriented service - and that's exactly what they delivered. Supported by data-driven customer-journey mapping, Firstsource's agents recovered $4M in auto lease debt in one year. Most notably, customers with resolved debt still came back to lease new vehicles.

35% reduction in collection expenses from a debt-collection partnership

Another frequent objection to outsourcing is that in-house teams can handle the challenges just as well. On a small scale, this can be true, but in many cases the cost of maintaining an in-house team - and the cost of collecting those debts - is unsustainable. Scalable solutions like Firstsource prepare your company to not just recover current outstanding debt but to grow your collections capabilities to fit future needs cost-effectively. Not only are specialised outsourced capabilities more scalable, but Firstsource has the debt collections expertise to train agents and find better results consistently. Take one client who approached Firstsource to supplement their agents and found a 35 percent reduction in collection expenses from their new, flexible onshore/offshore model. Or another whose offshore team delivers 15 percent higher collection yields and 15 percent higher retention than their onshore team.

De-risk your business

The final objection that comes up repeatedly is about compliance. The regulatory landscape in the collections space in the US is complex, and many companies are concerned about navigating compliance with an outsourced workforce. Compliance runs through every conversation at Firstsource. The team de-risks processes and regularly reduces customer complaints by an average of 85 percent. Firstsource's compliance experts have deep experience in creating audit-ready processes. The bottom line: thorny issues and complex landscapes are addressed without disruption.

Key outsourcing need: Location - and more locations

Outsourcing can take you anywhere, but right now, Mexico has the edge on nearshore staffing. Sharing borders and time zones with the US offers a significant advantage, making collaboration and training easier. Proximity and shared history bring an informal language familiarity that takes customer service to the next level. More than 13 percent of the US population speaks Spanish, making bilingual Spanish-English agents a highly sought-after demographic. And with a significantly lower cost of living, companies can find a highly capable workforce at a much lower cost.

Firstsource has seen all of these benefits in its nearshore workforces based in Mexico - but does not depend on just one location. As a provider with outsourcing capabilities across multiple locations, Firstsource can provide the reliability, redundancy, and continuity across time zones that organisations need.

Staring down a solution

Major companies are already digitising and outsourcing components of their debt collections process. Companies facing a tough economy and tightening labour market, all while consumer debt rises, will be left behind if they don't do the same. The equation is simple: a cost-effective solution that delivers higher customer satisfaction and better collections returns. Stay nearshore or go offshore. Supplement your team or add a new one. Whatever the path, outsourcing can provide the results you need - and Firstsource makes collections happen.