We're really trying to provide a benefit and help that student work through whatever is going on, so that they can get it paid off and continue their education with the university.

Welcome to Focus, a podcast dedicated to the business of Higher Education. I'm your host, Heather Richmond, and we will be exploring the challenges and opportunities facing today's higher learning institutions. Today, I'm joined by Kristy Pritchett, the Director of Student Account Services at the University of Alabama, to learn how they take a student friendly approach to recovering past due accounts leading to higher retention rates. Well, hi, Kristy. Thanks so much for joining us again today. I know a lot has changed since we chatted last back in 2020. So how are you doing?

I am doing great. And our department is doing well. Everybody has survived COVID. We are now working on fall of 23 billing and I can't believe we're about to be in 2024. 

Well, I know last time we chatted, we explored how the BAMAbot was helping students address issues with their student account. So tell me about BAMAbot, how's that going?

BAMAbot is still up and running on campus. We have a number of departments that have purchased licenses. So it is growing and spreading. I think our students in particular really like having that 24/7 option. And I have become one of those people that don't love to have to talk to people on the phone, I would rather use a chat bot. And I think our students do too.

I think you're absolutely right. I love when right there in your email saying, ÔHey, if you want an instant response, here's our BAMAbotÕ and that's just a good practice of something that came out of COVID, but it's still working and making it successful today. Well, some people might be wondering what we're even talking about and who you are, and University of Alabama. So let's just go ahead and do a quick step back and tell us a little bit about yourself and the University of Alabama.

I will be happy to, I'm Kristy Pritchett, and IÕm the Director of Student Account Services at the University of Alabama. We're located in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, we are what used to be known as the bursars office. So we do all of the billing and payments for students departments, lease contracts, all of those kinds of things. The university was founded in 1831 as a land grant university. We are a research institution offering anything from undergraduate to a doctoral degree. And we have about 38,000 students last year, trending upwards. 

ThatÕs great to trend upwards, right?

It is, nobody's going to turn that down. 

Absolutely not. Well, we just were talking about some changes in evolution. I know the last few years, there's really just been a lot more focus on colleges and universities in terms of really helping students stay out of debt, helping them from defaulting on payments, keeping them enrolled, all that going on. So can you talk a little bit about what you have been seeing at University of Alabama?

So just like at a lot of institutions that focus on retention and enrollment, and not just to recruitment has increased over time. So we are focused on trying to keep as many of our existing students as we have. We know during COVID, that a lot of students and their families had some struggles and it impacted people's finances. So before that, we were actively trying to keep students enrolled and paying their bills and not having to send as many to collection but that did become more of the focus during the COVID pandemic period. And now with student loan payments, anticipated to start back in September, October. I think that is going to continue to be a focus not just of each institution but of the federal government, the Department of Education too. So anytime you lose a student because they can't afford to come back, I mean, that increases your pressure on retention. If you're going to keep your numbers the same or up you have to replace that student. If you want to grow you've got to replace that student with maybe two students. So retention is just very important. We all keep hearing about the enrollment cliff that's coming, I think I have heard 2025, is when we'll first see that. So it's just important to be able to serve your students, help find ways for them to pay their bills, keep them paying throughout the term of their academic career, and keep them enrolled in school and happy with your institution. I think we've all heard people say, with employment, that it's cheaper to keep employees you have than it is to replace them with new employees. And really the same is true of students. It's cheaper to keep the student that you have versus having to replace them with a new student. And we all know when students graduate, we have to bring in new freshmen to replace those. But if you've got to replace your sophomores and juniors too, thatÕs a little harder. 

It really is. And, of course, everybody wants to keep everybody on track. And obviously, retention is so important, and being able to have the students know that there is an option. I think sometimes maybe, like you said, finances, or just life gets in the way a little bit. And there's just this idea of like, I'm behind, I can never make it up. So I guess I'm just done. And so past due balances are obviously reality everywhere, and especially, I'd say in higher education. So thinking about that, and trying to make sure that students know there's an option to stay and increase retention. What are you doing about managing past due balances?

So several years ago, before anybody had even heard or thought of COVID, we started to work with ECSI in their recovery select product, to manage accounts that were past due, as well as accounts that we were sending on further to collection.

Of course, ECSI is part of the Global Payments family just like TouchNet is. And so that is really cool, because it enables us to have some better integration, and really using that. So we think about using ECSIÕs Recovery Select and you are an early adopter, and you've seen some growth. Can you talk a little bit about how the service is working for you?

Yeah, so we've had a really good experience with ECSI. We were their beta school, the first school that implemented and helped develop the product, that was us. Yeah, so it really has streamlined our process, allowed us to reduce some of the repetitive work that comes in with past due accounts, like sending letters, making phone calls, past due account collection, all of that is highly regulated. It has been a focus of the CFPB as well as the Department of Education for a number of years. So nobody wants to really be in those crosshairs. TheyÕre a partner that understands what's happening in the industry and can really help improve a school's processes. So, basically Recovery Select is a full-service solution. They are student focused. And they work with students to try to help them resolve their past due accounts. They are not a collection agency. And the university is currently paying the fees associated with the Recovery Select product. They can offer longer term past due payment plans to help students make payments, students can pay in full. They can also help schools place your accounts with various collection agencies and even automate the rotation of accounts between collection agencies.

Sounds like it's definitely full service. And I'd say that compliance piece is so key, regulation in general is constantly changing, evolving. And to have one more thing for you to have to figure out and become the expert. You're not the expert in that. So having a partner who is an expert in the regulations, especially tailored to higher education is just key.

It is and so we do have to know what those regulations are because your third -party servicer is essentially just an arm of you so if they get you in trouble, you're in trouble. But the thing about working with a ECSI is they are very plugged into the industry. And because they are just like TouchNet is with things like PCI, the payment changes that are happening with NACHA, or other payment types that may be trending. Because those providers are in those markets, and they're very plugged in, they have built relationships, in the long run, they can sometimes tell you things that are coming down the pipeline that you may have missed, and you need to start preparing for. They can help make tweaks and things like your financial responsibility agreement, maybe you have missed something. They can help you get compliant with the regulation like Reg Z, where maybe you have to provide some additional information to a collection agency or service provider. So that's just really important. And if you've heard me speak almost about anything you have heard me tell this story. We were looking at a different solution, after we had been with Recovery Select for a while, and we were hearing a lot of other schools talk about this other solution. And you know, the price was better, and it sounded great, and it's new. But we were actually talking with a couple of our key partners that were at ECSI, about the Recovery Select product. And they just happened to mention at the time, this new regulation that was coming out and what they were doing to prepare for it. And when they left, we stopped and said, you know, we haven't asked the shiny new toy, what they're doing to prepare. And so we picked up the phone and called and said, ÔHey, what are you doing?Õ And they said, ÔWe don't know what you're talking about.Õ So just because it's shiny and new, if they don't know what's happening in the industry they're in, especially when you're dealing with collections and past dues, it can really cost you a lot of money. So it may be cheap on the front end, that doesn't mean it's going to be cheap on the back end if they get you in trouble. And just remember when I say it, your third party servicer is just an extension of you. So they're functioning as you in this case, and if they get in trouble, you're in trouble. And collection lawsuits can cost millions of dollars. So you may save some on the front end, and it may cost you big on the back end. So just know who your partners are, and know that they know what's happening in the industry and what they're doing. So they don't get you in trouble.

What does that phrase you get what you pay for. That's a really good point. And it is very important that when you make these partnerships, and because exactly what you said it's an extension of your team. It's the reputation, it's the dollars, it's the responsibility, and itÕs still on you. You're just looking for some help, but not to be hindered. So kind of thinking about all those things from a compliance standpoint, and all the letters and calls and everything that is part of that full-service package, how were you managing past due balances before partnering with ECSI?

We weren't doing a fabulous job of it before ECSI. So I came into the Student Accounts department, I guess it's been over 11 years ago. But we had four repayment counselors, they were working the past due accounts, and a manager and when I took over one of the things that I always wanted to know was how were we doing?  These accounts are in past due, how much are we collecting before it goes to a collection agency? How are our individual collection agencies doing? And we didn't have any measurements. And the manager and I had had a number of discussions and we didn't seem to be getting anywhere making any progress. We actually did a letter audit of the repayment counselors and so at some point they had started with some standardized letters and it was maybe four or five that they started with that they would send in different situations. And we found that each of those four people were tweaking them over time, and the four people had been in their positions for a long time. And we counted over 100 different letter templates. And so that was a little horrifying. You know, fact that they are just going in and changing things, again, your collection efforts, even if you're not charging collection costs and fees back to your customer, those efforts are auditable, and theyÕre regulated. So the fact that they were just going in and changing things and no one knew what they were changing. And we didn't know what they were collecting. And were they even making efforts to collect? Who knew? We didn't have any records. That was really a problem for us, well, it was a problem for me, they had been functioning that way for some time. It was a problem for me. I didn't like it. I was an auditor before and I like to know who's doing what and how they're doing it. So, one of the great things about the Recovery Select product is they have five letters that they send to each student, and make five phone calls. We know what those letters say, we know what's happening in the phone calls, that we're keeping records. We can go in the system and see what's happening. And now they're also making text messages for us. And we know that's a good way to reach out to students now. So it really standardized a problem that had no standards before.

Yeah, that sounds like it. And it makes sense. Now knowing that you have an auditor background, why compliance and being able to see what the path is, but that's across the board, you're in a role that to your point, you need to protect the institution. And because it's really protecting the students at the end of the day of knowing what are they supposed to pay? What are the fees that come in? So you need that standardization. So it sounds like this service is exactly what you're looking for, and has obviously already been a big help to your staff. So let's get to kind of dive into some of those additional benefits to both your institution and your staff.

Sure. So I mentioned that it really standardized the process and streamlined. So again, before we didn't know how much we were collecting from past dues versus collection, we can see all that now ECSI provides reporting, there's a score card for each of our collection agencies, and you can use whatever collection agency you want, they don't dictate that. But they will set them all up in their system. And they provide a scorecard because the data is running back and forth through them as a result of the TouchNet Banner Connect relationship. Because that data is flowing back and forth, they can pull all that data and do a score card comparison. We were doing that comparison manually before, that takes a lot of staff work, and it's not really interesting staff work. So now our staff can focus on having conversations with students, or reviewing error reports or if the collection agency needs something that we need to provide, our staff can focus on that. And we have been able to repurpose some staff into other roles because we don't need as many repayment counselors anymore. No one lost their job as a result of this but as people left, we just moved positions into other tasks where we really did need help. In terms of results, we're averaging about 40% resolution with accounts that go to ECSI, so ECSI is our pre-collect service, theyÕre not collections, we're not charging the students anything extra for ECSIÕs work the university is paying that fee. So for 40% of the accounts that we're placing ECSI is resolving those before they have to go to collection. So thatÕs a benefit because it's saving the students money and it's better for the student because they don't go to collection. It's not impacting their credit reports. It is just a win-win. And ECSI staff can really focus on those students and their past due situations while we focus more on the incoming students.

Absolutely. And that 40% that they're able to recover, that pre-collections, that's 40% of folks who probably want to come back on campus and it comes back to that retention conversation.

Right, and some of them graduate. So some of those amounts may be very small. So they might be seniors that didn't pay their book and graduation money. But I did look back at a report that ECSI prepared for us last year coming out of spring and summer. And I mean, we did get 25% of those students back. So we'll take that, that's a win.

That's a big win, 25% retention. I would venture to guess that if there wasn't that pre-collection, and especially by the time it gets to a collection agency. And sometimes that's always not the best experience, the likelihood of A) getting paid back is one thing, right? But B) to have them come back and retention. That's huge!

Yeah. And currently if the student sets up a payment plan with ECSI, we haven't allowed those students to come back and unless their balance is paid. But we are in talks with ECSI now about changing that process. And this is another benefit of working with a good partner. They work with a lot of schools just like TouchNet does. So they can see what the best practices are, what's working. So, we've reached out several times to say, well, what if we do X? Or we're thinking about doing Y. We feel like we need something different, and to help us figure out what that something different is. And they're really good about that. So we are in talks with them now about changing that process to allow students who have signed up for a payment plan to come back to school, while they're in the process of paying off those charges. Something could happen to a student that really only affects them one term, and we would like to have those students back. And we also think it would improve our payment plan rates to get some of those past due balances resolved, if we could allow some of that.

Yeah, that's really great to think that they can still come back and pursue their education, the whole reason they started to begin with and be able to pay that off over time, at the same time continuing and actually be able to graduate. I mean, that's amazing for students. So let's talk a little bit about that experience for the students. So it sounds like obviously, 40%, and then 25% of those from a retention standpoint, something is working in that process. So what's the communication like with the student?

So ECSI is sending five letters. We know what those letters say. They also make five phone calls. So a live person, is trying to get to a student to talk to them about what their situation is. And they're sending text messages. So we know what the script for that is. We had some input in that process. We are currently leaving accounts with ECSI Recovery Select product for 120 days. We bumped that up from the original 90 days, because other schools were seeing better results. We have made that change as a result of those best practices that we hear from our vendors. We know that the sooner you reach out to students, the more likely you are to get in touch with them and get them to start making arrangements. So we continue to work on how soon can we get those balances to ECSI so they can work on them for us. But again, as long as they're with ECSI they're not being sent to collections, they're not incurring collection charges. And if we can get those balances resolved, we can a lot of times get those students back in school.

That's amazing. Well, it sure sounds like there's not a lack of communication, which maybe when you're trying to do it yourself, and sometimes it's just hard to keep up. Has there been a positive response from students, are you hearing from them?

So, at the University of Alabama, we currently send the students an email, just as we are transferring their account to ECSIÕs Recovery Select product, and that email lets the student know that we are sending their account, they are not a collection agency, that we have partnered with them to help the student resolve their past due balance. And I think that just helps that transition for them to understand it's not a punishment, we're really trying to provide a benefit and help that student work through whatever is going on, so that they can get it paid off and continue their education with the university. And so we just really haven't had very many negative experiences. Well, I mean, we haven't had any that I'm aware of. But I think that communication helps that. But if a student did complain, we have insight into the ECSI system. So the phone calls are recorded, we can have those pulled and listen to them, we can see the notes in the system if we need to, to see what was said to the student. But it's really been a positive experience and not a negative at all.

That is so great. And I love that approach, that you have a partnership that really benefits the students. And that's really smart of you to explain who this is. So that probably has helped to ease and let the student know that you're there to really help them. Nothing's worse than a bad student experience and one little trigger. And so having access to understand and hear the phone calls and the conversations and that you've had no problems. I mean, that is awesome. That all comes back to and I think your data has proven that helps them to really from a retention standpoint and say this is a school I trust, this is where I want to spend my money, come back, get my education, graduate and be proud of that. Well, this sounds great. And it's kind of like, why isn't everybody doing this? So let's talk about what was the implementation like? In case people are listening and say, ÔWow, I do need to get that Recovery Select implemented.Õ What's it like?

So, we were the beta school. And it has probably changed since we implemented but even being the beta school and working through it, for the first time, it was really a pretty smooth process. I would probably say just, we're also busy now, finding the time to do it is probably the hardest. You do have to do some coding work, but ECSI was really great about walking us through that, and having forms for us to complete that helps them know how to program things. But again, they do use TouchNetÕs Banner Connect feature, so that just helps tremendously. And it keeps everything up to date. So if something happens on our side, if we get a payment that should have applied to an account we've sent to ECSI, they're also going to see that payment. And it really is a very smooth process. We have some things that run in the background, it's driven by coding, but it pushes all of that to ECSI, so that they have those updated records. They can pull transaction level detail, and the collection agencies can see that in their system. So that we're complying with all of the latest regulations. The collection agencies have the latest information. And we have worked with them over time to really get the reports that we need both dashboard type reporting rates at a summary level, which is what I care more about. And the detailed report levels that my staff are involved in on a day to day basis.

Yeah, thanks makes a lot of sense. And as we were saying earlier, the benefit of having two in the same family umbrella, having that integration throughout that connect is really essential. The way I see it, it's like, offer payment plans to students while they're paying on time, and they're on a plan. But then if something happens, and they go delinquent, they should just be rolled right over into Recovery Select, and then they can take it from there and continue to make that happen.

Right. And we do use TouchNetÕs, payment plans, and we love them. But you know, with Recovery Select, we don't have to keep up with those. So it's not something that we have to monitor. So that transition from one product to the other is really a great process.

That is wonderful. Well, again, as we talked about all the pressures that you have on improving retention and accounts receivable, this has just been so awesome to hear how you're able to do that. Any final advice for other institutions interested in doing this?

Well, I just think that by going with ECSI, you're going to get a more streamlined, automated approach. And it works. Your staff are going to be able to focus more on the things that they really need to focus on and find interesting, they're not going to have to deal with those monotonous and boring tasks like sending letters. They're not going to have to make those phone calls because ECSI is doing that for us. But as a manager, you're going to be able to trust that what's being done, is being done correctly and consistently. And you're going to be able to measure what's being done. I mentioned that they are very plugged into the industry, they know what's happening. They know what regulations are coming. We have conversations with them, it's not just the newsletter updates, we have conversations with them about what things we've heard, what it might mean for us, what it might mean for them, that you can get best practice ideas for how to improve your processes. So you're getting a lot of bang for your buck.

That makes a lot of sense. And again, it's like you're having a partner who you trust and you're having that relationship as opposed to just kind of 100% outsourcing out to somebody who you don't really know what they know, or don't know.

Yes, that's right. It's not a decision that we have regretted at all. I was banging down their door when they first presented about Recovery Select, and I think it was at a TouchNet conference. It was the first presentation. I don't even think there was a line that formed I ran to the front. We started talking about the presentation, I was saying sign me up!

That is awesome. Well, it sounds like you for sure have simplified the process of recovering past due accounts with a positive student experience. It's great. Well, Kristy, thank you so much for sharing your success with ECSIÕs Recovery Select with us today.

Sure. Thank you for having me.

Thanks for tuning in to this episode of Focus. Don't forget to subscribe so you can stay up to date on the business of higher education. For more information, check us out at TouchNet.com.