Behavioral Economics

Economics has become more interesting since the field moved to behavioral studies — what people actually do and not what they are mathematically supposed to do. This experiment shows how to cross the bridge between intention to pay debt and the action of funding it. The authors theorized that people get busy and fail to follow through so they changed outbound calls to delinquents to gain their commitment to action. The test worked although the numbers were small but the expense avoided and revenue generated was larger. The focus was on gaining commitment to a specific time frame for paying debt. Rather than talking to the debtor, the system asked for the deadbeat’s response then solidified the answer. It is one more verification that effective communications is two-way.