Picture this: You’re a consumer that frequents your lender’s website and mobile app to make online payments. One day, your due date passes without you realizing, and you miss a payment. You get an email in your inbox claiming to be from your lender, but it looks totally different than their website and app! Are you going to click the links inside of this strange, seemingly unsolicited email asking for a payment? Or are you going to report spam and delete it? Most customers choose the latter!
This is just one example of why brand alignment is so important for communicating with customers who are in collections.
Brand alignment does a few things for your collections strategy:
- Builds credibility — Customers want to know they’re hearing from you. In this day and age, we all get bombarded with spam and phishing emails, so the average consumer is more cognizant of the risks of strange emails. If they can’t identify you right away, they may assume your email has malicious intentions.
- Establishes reliable communications — With a cohesive brand format, customers can focus on the message. Instead of having to wade through email content, consistent communications branding means they will know where to look and where to take action as soon as they open the email.
- Improves reputation — Your reputation is as good as your consistency. Customers come to expect a certain tone and cadence based on their experience with your brand prior to entering collections. If your collections communications stray too far from your brand voice, that can damage your credibility and overall reputation with customers.
Brand alignment can affect more than just your collections performance. Any interaction a customer has with your brand can have a lasting impact on how they view your organization so a strong customer experience when they fall into collections can make or break their long-term loyalty.