After nearly two years, the COVID-19 pandemic has changed just about everything about how business is conducted around the world, and that is definitely true for the debt collection industry.
While we can still make collection phone calls like we used to, nearly everything else has changed and evolved with the rest of the world over the past few years. Let’s take a quick look at six of the most significant ways the pandemic has changed how we conduct business.
The Rise of Zoom Meetings
Like almost every other industry globally, debt collection has become a predominantly virtual operation in recent years. Thanks to the rise of Zoom meetings, almost everyone is now comfortable jumping on a video call to discuss whatever issues they might be having.
In the debt collection world, this means that we now have a unique hybrid that is actually better than the standard phone calls without requiring the effort of an in-person meeting.
Text & Social Media Communication
We likely would have seen an increase in text and social media communication without the pandemic, but there is no denying that it has boosted the number of people who are now available on these online platforms.
With recent updates to the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA), we are likely to see collections conducted through Direct Messages (DMs) become more and more prominent in the coming years.
Less In-Person Interaction in General
With so much effort now funneling into virtual communication methods, the number of in-person debt collection interactions has practically fallen off a cliff. It just isn’t something we really see at all anymore.
Moving forward, we think that this is likely to continue as modern technologies make in-person interaction obsolete.
More Government Assistance Available
The pandemic also brought us those government stimulus checks, which were a tremendous help to many struggling families across the country. Those checks helped many people catch up on their finances and get to a point where they could have serious discussions about paying off their collection accounts.
More Crackdowns on Predatory Collection Tactics
On a more negative note, there has been a slight rise in the number of people attempting to use illegal collection practices to exploit consumers during the pandemic. Fortunately, there has also been an uptick in the crackdowns on these predatory practices.
Cryptocurrency Has Exploded in Popularity
The past two years have also brought us an astounding rise in the function and popularity of cryptocurrency. It’s not unusual for consumers to hold multiple currencies in their virtual wallets these days, and the explosion of wealth created makes it easy for some consumers to pay off outstanding debts.
While the pandemic has had an overwhelmingly negative impact on our lives in general, there are still some silver linings to be found for the debt collection industry. With these new business practices in place, we are likely to see our industry work even better coming out of the pandemic than it did before.
