What has changed is how to effectively contact the late payer and the customer. Recently, the possible channels of communication have exploded: Land Lines, Cell Phones, E-mail, Faxes, Text Messaging, and Letters. Studies have shown that as companies incorporate more channels in their communication strategy, the more effective communications become.

An example is the randomized study done by Departments of Pediatrics, Permanente Medical Group, published in the Official Journal Of The American Academy of Pediatrics that evaluated the effectiveness of sending letters, automated telephone messages, or both to families of under immunized 20-month-olds.  They found that sending only letters or only making the calls yielded an average response rate of 44%, but when both channels were used, they achieved a response rate of 58%.

The question that one now has to answer is should they use one platform that offers multi-channels: allowing for a single data upload, straightforward process to alternate between message types, and one report that includes all message types?