Frequent Communication Drives Improved Collections for Lender

WHO
MM Finance, also known as Midwest Check Cashing or www.getezmoney.com is a growing payday lending institution with 44 locations in 6 states and over 150 employees. They offer payday advances, short-term loans, and other financial services.

THE SITUATION
Midwest Check Cashing had a large volume of calls they needed to complete on a daily basis that were being made manually.  Each day, agents would call past-due clients to remind them of their account status, and then log that information into a database.  The challenge was time-consuming and the list of calls was at risk of growing out of control.  Past-due borrowers could only be reached manually once, or at most, twice a week, and the data input seemed to always lag behind.  Management had no way to verify that all the calls were being made.   Midwest CC sought a solution to improve productivity, collections, and reporting.

THE CAMPAIGN
Vontoo worked with Midwest Check Cashing to integrate the export of the daily call lists to Vontoo’s web-based call broadcasting system.  Thousands of calls are then sent every day from the Vontoo system with one of two messages from Midwest.   Reporting is then transmitted back to Midwest on every call and they can track calls delivered live, messages left on an answering machine, and undeliverable messages.

THE RESULTS
Where a past-due borrower might have heard from Midwest Check Cashing on a weekly basis in the past, the overdue account is now notified on a daily basis.  Midwest witnessed a marked improvement almost immediately and state that their collections numbers are better than last year.  With tracking results on every call, reporting is easy, extensive, and problem accounts are identified more quickly.

“People sometimes don’t address their account until they are contacted.  With our old system, they would not be notified as often and our past-due clients would forget about us.  We hear ‘I wasn’t going to call you until you called.’  Because we are able to contact them more frequently, they tend to deal with us ahead of their other debtors.  This is going to be a game-changer for us.”

Greg Wittmeier, General Manager
MM Finance/www.getezmoney.com

Client: Productive Learning & Leisure
Industry: Training and Motivation
Goal: Send daily motivational calls to clients.

Motivational Phone Calls Delivered by Vontoo Messaging Technology
California’s Productive Learning & Leisure Uses Vontoo to Send Phone Messages to Clients

Already a successful motivational speaker and corporate trainer, Rick Itzkowich wanted to enhance how his company Productive Learning & Leisure (PL&L) connected with its clients. Itzkowich’s solution was a daily motivation phone call via Vontoo’s voice messaging system (vontoo.com).

Using Vontoo’s automated calling service, PL&L created a new product called QuoteActionsSM (quoteactions.com). A subscription-based service, QuoteActionsSM sends an automated daily phone call to clients’ mobile, business or home telephones. During each call, Itzkowich or a colleague reads a memorable quote and then provides the client with a related motivational action.

Vontoo’s voice broadcasting capabilities have allowed PL&L to offer a superior approach to motivational text messages delivered by e-mail. With his inspiring, enthusiastic tone, Itzkowich records each QuoteActionSM voice message through Vontoo’s web interface and schedules them for subsequent delivery. The phone calls are then made in mass at the prescheduled date and time. Since Vontoo requires no hardware, software or third-party call center, PL&L is able to minimize resources spent on the phone calling service while maximizing the client benefits.

Initially launched as a test program, Itzkowich has been overwhelmed by the positive response. “What pleasantly surprised me was the high value our clients ascribed to the call,” he explains. “More than 95 percent indicated a willingness to pay up to $10 a month to receive it.” In less than six months, participation has grown to nearly 400 subscribers.

PL&L is just one example of how Vontoo is redefining marketing communications by offering companies the opportunity to personally connect with members, customers or constituents with voice messaging. Vontoo has played a role in everything from sports marketing for NBA teams, to constituent communication for not-for-profits, to driving product re-orders for small businesses.

In the future, PL&L has the option of using Vontoo’s voice messaging technology to customize daily voice broadcasts specific to each client or group of clients’ demographics. This is a significant benefit, as many companies are asking PL&L to call their employees with a common daily goal. Itzkowich believes it is the direct emotion of a human voice that is more appealing than an email text message that can be easily deleted or ignored.

Vontoo President and Co-Founder Dustin Sapp agrees. “Whether you’re selling seats or selling participation, nothing is more motivating than receiving a personal phone call from someone you’ve grown to trust,” says Sapp. “With Vontoo as a partner, companies like PL&L aren’t just sending out calls. They are completely reinventing what it is to be a leader in their industry.”

Client: Initial Underwriting Group
Industry: Financial Services
Goal: Communicating with clients

Initial Underwriting Group
Using Vontoo to Communicate with Clients and Drive Web Site Success

In today’s current economic climate, many people are struggling to make ends meet or are going without unnecessary luxuries to save money during tough times. Individuals working in various industries and businesses of all types have been hit hard. Small businesses, in particular, are struggling with reservations about obtaining necessary funding or loans. Although many venture capitalists and angel investors still have capital to dole out, many small businesses are hesitant to take out loans and anxious about borrowing.

Initial Underwriting Group (IUG) has been in business since 2000 and has been helping build business credit since 2003. Its purpose is to help small businesses obtain funding and loans. IUG works to help small businesses discover solutions for finding the capital needed to take them to the next level. Using years of research, relationships from the past and new relationships, IUG directs small business owners to the companies that can help them find creative ways of financing.

Since small businesses are especially in need of consultation on financing during the current economic downturn, IUG is playing a particularly important role for companies today. In April 2008, the founder and owner of IUG, Ilya Bodner, took a look at how his team of underwriters was spending their time. With so much demand from clients, and around 50,000 contacts in a database who needed to be contacted, this underwriting team was placing hundreds of calls daily, spending a huge amount of time and human capital on these communications with clients.

Bodner, a proactive social networker, learned about Vontoo voice messaging through LinkedIn. He realized this service could provide an ideal solution for saving money and using employees’ time more efficiently at IUG. After initially implementing Vontoo’s technology for calling clients on a trial basis, Bodner was so pleased with the results that he signed up for a yearly rate and was able to replace human calls to clients with Vontoo messages.

“Vontoo has really turned my business around,” said Bodner. “Through its use, I’ve not only made the process of reaching clients much faster, but I’ve been able to save IUG over $15,000 a month by cutting unnecessary expenses.”

After having such success using Vontoo to contact IUG clients, Bodner is now considering using the service for marketing efforts as well – to reach out to potential clients, provide information and give them the option to speak with someone about IUG’s services. Since IUG receives around 6000 hits each month to its website from potential new business, which Bodner credits to Vontoo, he would like a means of contacting these people without having to employ callers.

“From the results we’ve achieved using Vontoo to reach our current client base, I believe the potential exists to utilize this service in marketing as well,” said Bodner. “It just makes sense – we can reach as many people as desired in a short amount of time, and we’re spending far less to send Vontoo calls than we would be on employing staff to personally make calls.”

For more information on Initial Underwriting Group, please visit initialunderwriting.org. To speak with Ilya Bodner regarding his experience with Vontoo, please call him at 614.231.3519.

Client: Mike Miller Hyundai
Industry: Automobile Sales and Service
Goal: Drive Increased Sales

Mike Miller Hyundai Takes A U-Turn Sales Approach
Vontoo Drives Revenue Increase for 4th Quarter

With the auto industry in turmoil during the current economic downturn, car dealerships are struggling to stay afloat with hundreds of dealerships closing around the country. The ones still surviving are continuously looking for creative ways to drive sales. One dealership thinks it has found the winning solution – focusing its attention and efforts on a very important group, its existing customers.

Mike Miller Hyundai is a mid-sized dealership in Peoria, IL with fifty employees. In November of 2007, Russell Herman, the service manager for the dealership, had a revelation – that catering to existing customers is just as important as bringing in business from new ones. While new customers are great, the dealership has a preexisting base of customers who need routine service work. Mike Miller decided to capitalize on these customers who can still use its services – in the form of oil changes, tune-ups and other auto repair work. Herman therefore implemented an innovative communications campaign for customer retention which is not only helping bring revenue to the dealership now but is also cultivating positive relationships with customers for the future.

“In these tough economic times, we want to show our customers we appreciate them and value their business,” said Herman. “And by ensuring loyalty among these existing customers, we can maintain sales despite selling fewer cars due to the economic downturn.”

As part of this plan, Herman convinced his dealership to stop sending direct mail and start using voice messaging technology instead. He wanted a method of reaching out to past customers via the phone and came across Vontoo online. He was immediately impressed with the service’s ease of use, low cost, speed of implementation and ability to “pay as he calls,” instead of having to purchase a bulk package in advance. Herman began to record personal, pleasant reminders to past customers due for an oil change, maintenance check up or scheduled appointment. He said his customers largely appreciate the friendly reminders, since the calls remind them of necessary work needed on their cars or an appointment already scheduled. Of thousands of calls he has sent out over the past year, only ten recipients have opted out of receiving future messages.

“Our customers love our messages!” said Herman. “When they call to schedule appointments, they always thank us for the reminder, saying they were aware they needed an oil change but kept forgetting to make an appointment. It’s a win-win for everyone!”

Herman’s efforts at bringing past customers into Mike Miller have achieved great, measurable results. While customer retention for dealerships, on average, is 35% – his is 52%! An auto dealer down the road from Mike Miller is quoted as saying this is the slowest his business has been in 26 years, and that two to four thousand dealers nationwide are expected to fail this year. Mike Miller, on the other hand, has brought in more business than it can handle. Herman and his team now handle 1,500 cars per month in service, which is very high for a dealership of its size.

“I’ve actually had to put calling campaigns on halt due to the overwhelming response from customers,” said Herman. “Each time I send out a call, my entire staff immediately knows about it because their phones light up like a Christmas tree with customers calling to schedule appointments.”

During non-promotion times, the service bays at Mike Miller Hyundai are typically 90% full. When Herman sends out a Vontoo call, this typically results in his bays being 120% filled to capacity. Within several hours of sending out a Vontoo call, the inbound phone calls to his service shop jump almost immediately by 30-40% with customers calling to make appointments. This jump in call volume remains consistent for several days after a call is sent out. By sending out a Vontoo call, Herman will go from having appointments booked solid for 2-3 days out to having appointments booked solid for 5-6 days out.

Herman was also very pleased at Vontoo’s low cost. The dealership currently spends about $200 per month on sending Vontoo calls, whereas sending a direct mail piece to the same customer base would cost around $2,000.

Mike Miller Hyundai is one of about a hundred auto dealerships across the country utilizing Vontoo’s technology for communications purposes. For more information on Mike Miller Hyundai, please visit http://www.mikemillerautopark.com/.

Client: Metis/America Marketing
Industry: Marketing Agency
Goal: Increase tradeshow attendance

Metis/America Marketing Creates Seamless Client Experience Using Vontoo
Firm Describes Vontoo Voice Messaging as Ideal Component for Integrated Marketing Campaign

As someone with extensive experience working with organizations such as Wells Fargo, York International and even the National Football League, Managing Director Teresa Caviness of Metis/America Marketing (Metis) has a keen understanding of what it takes to exceed her clients’ expectations. Relying on her expertise, Caviness turned to phone marketing company Vontoo (http://www.vontoo.com) when another calling service was failing to meet a current client’s needs.

“Our client was promoting the opening of new retail outlets and we were not happy with the approach we were being forced to take for the telemarketing portion of the campaign,” she explains. “In looking for a new voice broadcasting company, we wanted three things: a better mousetrap, a stress-free transition, and something that would be easier to manage for the long-term. We were extremely pleased to find all this and more with Vontoo.”

“I’ve been in business quite awhile and of the things I’ve had to move for one reason or another I can honestly say nothing has gone so smoothly as Vontoo’s transition,” shares Caviness. “Our clients focus on results, while it is our job to work out the details. Things went so well I’m not even sure that at the time the client even knew the transition had occurred. It was seamless.”

Over time, however, the client was so pleased with the overall campaign, and particularly the automated messaging portion supported by Vontoo, that it came to Metis with another opportunity. “This time they wanted us to promote a series of tradeshow appearances and the client was very excited about the possibility of integrating the calling program with our other marketing tactics,” continues Caviness. Once again using Vontoo, Caviness and her team began sending out highly targeted voice messages with the goal of motivating the client’s customers to attend the events.

“From our perspective, it was much easier this time around to launch the telemarketing portion of the campaign using Vontoo,” reflects Caviness. “When we were doing this with the other company, there were layers of external management that it slowed the process. Even though we manage more of the technical process now via Vontoo’s Internet interface, we have much more control of the campaign’s timing, execution, and even the management of our messaging.

“I don’t think even I initially realized how easy Vontoo would be for us to use.” In addition to the advantages Caviness sites, she says her firm has also benefited from using Vontoo’s automated tracking capabilities to give her client up-to-date analysis on the voice messaging campaign’s impact. After every round of calls, Vontoo automatically sends reports that detail which recipients listen to the call and for how long, as well as which messages reach a voicemail system or answering machine. “The fact that all of this is available to see online, in real time, is huge,” emphasizes Caviness. “It’s very important to break down the results and all the details these instant reports provide are exactly what we need to give our client.”

In the future, Metis plans to use Vontoo to serve other clients. “In situations where time is of the essence, you could literally design and successfully implement a calling campaign in a matter of hours using Vontoo,” she says. “To me, there’s no counterpart to Vontoo’s automated messaging technology out there that can deliver this kind of capability. We definitely see Vontoo as our partner, and I would have no hesitation in recommending its use to other marketing firms.”

Client: Inside INdiana Business
Industry: News & Media
Goal: Deliver news to recipients

INdiana Business Launches Innovative Phone Broadcasts Using Vontoo Voice Messaging Technology

Expanding its reputation as a leading multi-media provider of business news, Inside INdiana Business with Gerry Dick and its parent company, Grow INdiana Media Ventures, are now sending news reports directly to subscribers’ mobile, business, or home phones. The concept is a new approach to broadcast content distribution that represents a unique pairing-a partnership between a media outlet that covers emerging trends in the state’s technology sector with an Indianapolis-based company gaining a strong reputation for its on-demand voice marketing technology. Now instead of going online or turning on the T.V. or radio, people hear the latest news simply by answering a call distributed by Vontoo phone messaging.

Grow INdiana Media Ventures Director of Interactive Media and Market Development, Ryan Chelli, says the personal approach and high accessibility of a phone call resonates strongly with the program’s core audience of business professionals. “Today’s workforce is increasingly pressured to perform and we find people are multitasking at an incredible rate,” Chelli explains. “There’s not always time to stop and read an Internet story or even listen in the car to a brief news report. Yet a phone call can be taken quickly and reviewed anywhere-even while walking to the next meeting.”

Using Vontoo, the same digital reports already recorded for the radio broadcasts are uploaded and scheduled for phone delivery. Next, Chelli himself accesses a simple Internet interface to almost instantly distribute the calls in mass. No hardware, software or third-party call center is required to use Vontoo, which Chelli emphasizes is one key reason the media outlet felt so comfortable trying the new voice broadcasting method. “We did a story on Vontoo and heard from other companies how easy it is to use,” says Chelli. “Even so, once I did it myself I was surprised by its simplicity. In many ways, the process is much easier than anything else we do to distribute the program.” In a single transaction, one to one million calls can be sent.

Following the voice broadcasts, Vontoo sends summaries to Chelli that detail which calls reached live listeners and which connected to a voicemail system or answering machine. Chelli views this tracking feature as the most valuable benefit Vontoo offers, particularly for media outlets that depend on detailed audience statistics to maintain advertiser support. “It’s one thing to tell your advertisers how many people you think are reading or listening to your programs,” he says. “But to be able to prove it; that’s huge. Reviewing the summaries even tells us what viewers are finding most interesting, allowing us to tweak the content and structure of our reports if ever necessary.”

Chelli and his team are exploring using Vontoo’s dynamic content building capabilities to customize each news report. “Someone from Ft. Wayne might not be interested in the same news as someone who lives in Evansville,” he explains. “With Vontoo, we can develop phone broadcasts that keep the news relevant to our viewers’ specific demographics.”

As for Vontoo, co-founder Dustin Sapp says the voice messaging company is pleased to play its part in creating a new approach to broadcasting. “If there’s one theme across our diverse group of clients, it’s that they’ve been able to use Vontoo’s automated calling capabilities to generate new ways to grow their businesses,” says Sapp.