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SMS and NanoSites secure revenue for Ackerman

By engaging clients with a combination of Upwire’s SMS messaging and NanoSitesAckerman Security reduced payment arrears by 85% within one month.

 

The Challenge

Declined debits, overdue bills

As with most residential and business alarm companies, Ackerman Security was struggling with an increasing volume of declined debits from customers enrolled in recurring payments for their subscription alarm services.

Ackerman found that their contact centre was only able to engage a fraction of their customers via outbound phone calls and that aging of accounts receivables was growing.

Revenue was at increasingly at risk, and operational costs were unsustainably high.

 

Upwire Solution:

Automated, tailored messaging

Upwire moved Ackerman Security outreach to an automated combination of SMS and NanoSite communications, requesting a payment of an overdue bill.

Each SMS message was personalised and contained a short link to an Upwire NanoSite. Upwire tailored SMS messages based on the age of the overdue invoice. The messaging ranging from friendly to stern as days outstanding advanced from 30, 60, 90 to 120 days.

Initial customer outreach via SMS was key to the success of the solution. It gave customers the option to pay at the time of their choosing via an Upwire NanoSite or by calling into the Ackerman Security contact centre to negotiate payment terms.

 

Results:

Exceptional outcomes. Fast.

The Upwire outreach achieved results far surpassing the more expensive contact centre outreach

• Fast deployment: 2 weeks from project start to outreach commencement.

• Revenue uplift: The engagement worked: with an 85% decrease in active arrears following the first month of the program.

• Operational savings: contact centre staff could focus on higher-skilled work and reduce time spent on collections.

• Customer satisfaction: 35% of payments are now made through NanoSites. Feedback showed customers preferred the automated interaction and felt happier clearing a debt scenario via NanoSites than 1:1 voice calls.

Revenue increase, reduction in operational costs and a better customer experience: the exceptional outcomes Upwire delivers.

 

Additional Benefits:

Incrementally adapt and improve

Automated SMS outreach rescued Ackerman from a spiralling revenue pattern and the ineffective use of costly contact centre staff. In addition, benefits include:

  • Easy to adapt and improve. SMS messaging can be fine-tuned easily. The intuitive user interface of Upwire’s solution means Ackerman staff can iterate and improve the program messaging, as they learn from results.
  • Demonstrable ROI. With minimal up-front and ongoing costs the business case to deploy was easy… the business can see and evaluate the ROI (from both increased revenues and operational costs savings) from the start.
  • Buildable solutions. Over time, the team at Ackerman can work with Upwire to deploy PCI-compliant IVR solutions to further reduce reliance on contact centre staff.

If you would like to discuss the exceptional outcomes Upwire can deliver across your organisation’s customer lifecycle communications – onboarding, payments or retention – please get in touch. We’d love to chat.

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