A Consumer-First Collections Operation
Upwork is creating the world’s largest online workplace and is trusted by over 5M businesses to source freelancers, independent professionals, and agencies for all their hiring needs.
"On our own, we weren’t actively pursuing old debt. With TrueAccord’s adaptive solution, we could try and recover as much of it as possible.”
Their Challenge
When Upwork experienced accelerated growth, the payments team saw a gap in their ability to ensure that payments were received for contracted work on their online workplace. Upwork engaged a third-party call-and-collect agency to help collect these overdue payments, but this agency would only accept debts over $1500 and saw limited success —recovering only 1% of outstanding funds. Furthermore, Upwork saw issues with the lack of personalization in the agency’s communication and a lack of focus on the consumer experience which went against Upwork’s way of doing business.
Finding a Solution
After parting ways with the first agency, Upwork engaged TrueAccord to help recover the payment debt that had sat on Upwork’s books for more than a year. Upwork immediately saw the benefits of moving away from the call and collect model and toward a multi-channel solution that featured flexible payment options, a self-service portal, and empathetic messaging strategies. TrueAccord was able to scale and handle almost any debt amount, and Upwork was able to focus on resolving customer issues and build brand trust—rather than simply collect revenue.
“On our own, we weren’t actively pursuing old debt. With TrueAccord’s automated solution, however, we were willing to try and recover as much of it as possible,” says Denise Aptekar, Director of Global Payments for Upwork. To date, Upwork has placed several millions of dollars in old and new accounts with TrueAccord and is increasing liquidation rates while improving the customer experience for all of its consumers—even ones that have outstanding debt.
"When we first met with the TrueAccord team, we immediately recognized that they were different from other potential partners.”
Why TrueAccord?
TrueAccord is a digital-first provider of outreach, recovery, and collection solutions helping more than 13 million consumers of service, lending, technology, financial, and FinTech organizations since 2013. With more than $10 billion in debt managed, we are transforming the debt collection industry and helping consumers reach financial health with convenientpayment plans, customized billing schedules, and easy documentation.
Interested in the future of debt collection?
Learn how TrueAccord’s digital-first debt collection delivers industry-leading results and a superior consumer experience.
