Contact rate
Contact rate is the share of debtors or contact attempts that ended in a live contact: an answered call or a reply to a message.
How it is calculated
There are two versions. By attempts: successful contacts divided by attempts. By people: the number of debtors reached at least once in a period divided by the number of debtors in work. The second version is closer to the result.
A hypothetical example: 1,000 debtors are in work, and 420 responded during the week. The contact rate by people is 42%.
In chats, a contact usually means a reply from the client, not the fact that the message was delivered or read.
Why it matters
Without contact there is no promise and no payment. Contact rate is the first link of the chain: reach, agree, get paid. If this link is weak, no script will help.
The metric also shows where the problem is. A low contact rate points to bad numbers, inconvenient timing or a channel the client does not use.
What to do about it
Break the contact rate down by channel, time of day and segment. Often the same group of debtors ignores calls but replies in a messenger.
Update contact details and weed out dead numbers so that attempts are not wasted.
Remember the limits. In many countries the number and timing of contacts with a debtor are regulated, so a higher contact rate cannot be bought with endless attempts.
The typical mistake is counting any answer as a contact. If the person who answered is a relative or a stranger rather than the debtor, that is a different situation with its own metric, RPC.
More in Signals
- Collection agency and call center in messaging apps: the economics of switching from calls to chatMoving collections from calls to messaging apps pays off only if you measure it on your own data: compare the connect rate with the reply rate, promises with how many are kept, and the cost per contact before and after. People answer messages more readily because they answer when it suits them. Stay inside the collection and data protection laws of your country and start with a pilot on one group.
- What a messenger sales team really costs and where it loses moneyA sales team in messengers costs more than salaries: money also leaks out through seven channels. These are slow replies, abandoned conversations, forgotten follow-ups, a sales rep leaving with the client base, blocked numbers, broadcasts with no result and broken payment promises. Each leak can be sized on your own numbers: lost conversations times your close rate times your average deal.