LiveVox Study Reveals Unattended Messaging is an Inefficient By-Product of Agency Dialer Line Starvation

SAN FRANCISCO — LiveVox Inc., the leading provider of hosted-dialer solutions, today announced an analysis of collection industry clients has revealed that the use of unattended broadcast messaging during late-stage collections is a symptom of dialer line constraints.

Discussions with LiveVox clients uncovered that agencies have adapted unattended “message blasting” strategies because they lack the dialing capacity needed for agents to contact growing account volumes comprised of increasingly difficult to reach consumers. This is consistent with previous findings from LiveVox showing 7 to 9 lines are needed to keep agents busy. Record low liquidation rates further compound the problem. Agencies have to maximize agent productivity to mitigate this.

“Unattended messaging fails to leverage the power of analytics and work-flow prioritization in outbound call strategies. It’s really the exact opposite of skills-based routing,” said Michael Chamberlain, President and Chief Executive Officer, Asset Management Outsourcing Inc., a Norcross, GA-based receivables management firm. “Agencies best positioned to weather the recession will be those that take full advantage of every precious contact. Cutting-edge technology like LiveVox can provide the flexibility and scalability needed to protect operating margins and improve client service.”

Because LiveVox provides unlimited capacity, unattended messaging has become an insufficient and unnecessary approach to the great majority of collection efforts. Unattended may have limited use for early stage, self cure accounts, but not for late stage collections where agencies need to find ways to always optimize agent productivity.

“The more I speak with agencies the more I realize that nearly every premised dialer process is shaped by constraints, not best practices,” said John McNamara, Chief Marketing Officer, LiveVox. “Why would an operator not want an agent to speak with a willing consumer? Unattended campaigns are a relic of the past when not enough lines meant high agent wait times.”