Should collectors send text messages to consumers before calling them, letting the consumer know that a phone call is coming? Some collectors are using this strategy and having some success with it. There may be a reason for that. More and more, it seems, people are finding unannounced phone calls, especially from numbers they don’t recognize, to be intrusive and annoying, according to an article published in today’s Wall Street Journal.
Just 16% of white-collar professionals who were born between 1997 and 2012 — members of Generation Z — think that the phone call is a productive means of communication, according to one survey.
While the article focused more on calls between people who know each other, either friends or relatives or co-workers and colleagues, the dynamic might be worth noting for companies in the accounts receivable management industry. Maybe giving a consumer a heads up that a phone call is on the way will make the individual more likely to pick up the phone.
“A lot of people in my generation have phone anxiety,” said one 24-year-old. They get freaked out by the idea of answering the phone.”
One individual mentioned in the article said the only times he has received calls without being notified by text first, someone was calling him to let him know about a death in the family. He now associated unplanned calls with bad news and emergencies.
Another said he was ok with friends and family calling him without first sending a text message, but not strangers.
“If I were to ask the world a favor, I would ask people that have never communicated with me, if they got access to it, not to use that direct number,” he said.
