[August 9, 2005]

CashCall Plays Concerto

BY DAVID SIMS

Concerto Software, a provider of contact center products is announcing that CashCall, Inc., a consumer lending company, has selected Concerto EnsemblePro for implementation in its Irvine, Calif. contact center.

CashCall? Those guys who had Gary Coleman doing ads in California last fall? Yep.

CashCall officials are hopeful that EnsemblePro's call-blending capabilities will reduce agent idle time by handling a mix of inbound and outbound interactions based on demand and traffic.

The predictive dialer is expected to automate CashCall's manual dialing functions, incorporate real-time access to customer information and determine the correct pacing for outbound calls.

EnsemblePro includes interactive voice response and recording capabilities, with which CashCall can "facilitate and fulfill customer inquiries and requests, such as account or loan status information, without requiring agent assistance," according to Concerto officials.

"CashCall was created to simplify the consumer loan application process and we carry that philosophy throughout the organization, including the contact center," said Louis Ochoa, director of loan servicing, CashCall.

David Lazarus wrote an excellent column in the San Francisco Chronicle last fall about CashCall. Specializing in people who find themselves in "the occasional financial pinch," according to Lazarus, the company offers $10,000 and $5,000 loans.

"For a $10,000 loan, customers face an interest rate of 34 percent, 39 percent or 44 percent, depending on creditworthiness. For a $5,000 loan, the interest rate will be either 47 percent or 59 percent," Lazarus writes.

Paul Reddam, CashCall's founder, said the interest rates reflect the risk his company takes on, and the fact that customers put up no collateral for their loans.

As of last September, according to Lazarus, "CashCall's privacy policy states that customers' personal info may be used 'for marketing research and other marketing purposes, which may include sharing it with our business partners.'"

Established in July 2003, CashCall is privately held and has loaned more than $170 million to roughly 41,000 customers.