Anticipates Reduction in Direct Marketing Costs

WHO
A department-style discount chain with over 250 stores in 30 states and annual sales over $1 billion. Primarily selling women’s, men’s and children’s brand-name clothing from casual to formal wear, an in-store boutique area,  as well as shoes, jewelry, and some home goods.

THE SITUATION
The store uses frequent mailings, newspaper and glossy magazine ads, as well as email notifications to alert loyal shoppers to new lines, discounts, and private sales.  They used phone broadcasts prior to September 1, 2009 to inform shoppers of promotions as well.   Once the new FTC regulations on automated calls went into effect, they were looking for a way to send calls in compliance with the law, and build their permission database at the same time.

THE CAMPAIGN
The retailer ran several coordinated promotions to gain phone opt-in permission over the course of a few months.  Emails were sent offering a one-click phone opt-in and the website offered shoppers several ways to receive sale notifications, including voice.  Finally they ran a contest offering a $10,000 shopping spree to people who went online and registered to win.  The registration form offered the option to receive occasional notifications of seasonal sales and promotions, and registrants could choose either email or phone options – giving the retailer the written/electronic opt-in permission they needed.

THE RESULTS
78,000 loyal shoppers chose to receive phone notifications and willingly offered either home or cell numbers to be alerted about seasonal sales and promotions.   The retailer has resumed their phone campaigns, which historically resulted in less than ½ % opt-out rate per call.  They will add in-store signage promoting phone notifications thru a text opt-in option.

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