Right party contact (RPC)
Right party contact (RPC) is a contact with the debtor personally rather than a third party: only in such a conversation can the debt be discussed.
How it is calculated
Every successful contact is tagged: the debtor answered, someone else did, or it is unclear who. The RPC rate is the share of contacts with the debtor among all contacts or among all debtors in work.
A hypothetical example: in a day there were 300 calls and chat replies, 180 of them with the debtors themselves. The RPC rate is 60% of contacts.
Before discussing the debt, the agent must make sure they are speaking to the right person: say the name and ask a verification question without revealing the reason.
Why it matters
A payment can only be agreed with the debtor. A conversation with a spouse or a colleague brings no money but does carry risk: disclosing a debt to a third party breaks data protection and collection rules in many countries.
For a manager, RPC shows real productivity. A high overall contact rate with low RPC means the team is spending time on the wrong numbers.
What to do about it
Require identity verification at the start of every call and every new chat. If someone other than the debtor answers, leave a neutral request to get in touch, without the amount or the reason.
Track RPC by contact source. Numbers found through tracing often produce many contacts and little RPC.
Link RPC to results: what share of contacts with the debtor end in a promise, and what share of promises are kept. Rules for communicating with third parties depend on the country, so check them with a lawyer.
More in Signals
- Debt collection in messaging apps: what works and where the legal line isDebtors answer a message sooner than a call because there is no pressure of the moment, time to think and less shame. For a company that means a calm tone, clear amounts and dates, an agreement on a specific day and a reminder before it. Stay within the law: no threats, no night messages, no disclosure to third parties. The head of collections owns that line and reads the conversations.
- 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.