Picture this: the next five disputes in queue are a mix of indirect and direct, requiring navigation across multiple applications. Each dispute involves a different product, a different system of record, and summary notes captured elsewhere. Customer correspondence? That’s in yet another system.
This is the tangled web your dispute specialists navigate daily. Because of the rinse and repeat nature of many disputes, your specialists may be highly proficient in navigating their day-to-day duties. But are they truly efficient?
A robust disputes case management system transforms the day-to-day experience of dispute specialists. With volumes rising, large furnishers are handling tens of thousands every month (many of which are duplicates), efficiency isn’t optional. Volumes for smaller furnishers are relatively significant as well.
Specialists often juggle green-screens and web-based tools, a phenomenon known as the “swivel-chair effect.”
Imagine centralizing all dispute-related activities:
How much more efficient could your specialists be with such a tool? Combining specialist proficiency with DCMS efficiency is a tailor-made formula for success.
Key pain points that a disputes case management system can eliminate.
Responding to the same verbatim dispute from the same customer multiple times in a month is frustrating. Ideally, you would consolidate these disputes so that two, three or four responses turn into one. Consolidation significantly cuts down redundant, excess and unnecessary work. A DCMS can do just that.
Disputes are generally not responded to immediately upon receipt. So, a DCMS uses the time when disputes are waiting in queue to detect similar or duplicate disputes. Then, the DCMS consolidates them all into one case. When your dispute specialist works that case, they issue one response and close all related dispute cases at once.
Regulators demand tangible evidence. From a disputes perspective, you must provide copies of received disputes and system notes; and show what the system of record looked like when the dispute was received. This applies to disputes where furnishing was accurate and inaccurate.
Generally, when regulators arrive to perform a historical lookback, they are looking for tangible evidence. The evidence validates what data was in a system at the time of a dispute compared against what was changed (if anything). A DCMS captures and retains this information, thereby making a regulatory data request a significantly simplified exercise to fulfill.
While all disputes have the same response SLA, all disputes are certainly not created equal. Some disputes have higher sensitivity (e.g., ID theft). Some may take a bit longer to investigate (e.g., mortgage or purged accounts). And some may be “light touch” requiring a simple investigation (e.g., goodwill requests).
The ability to strategically prioritize and assign disputes, using many different attributes, will allow for efficiency gains. A DCMS can ingest all available data and dissect it based on your criteria (e.g., dispute code, product, system of record, dispute type). Logic rules can then be applied to create prioritized dispute queues so critical cases and those known to take longer are fast-tracked to specifically trained specialists.
The speed at which dispute specialists constantly copy information from one place to another ultimately results in data entry errors. Many times, because they are working so quickly, mistakes go unnoticed, which ultimately results in updating a tradeline with more inaccurate information.
Imagine if all required information was populated with the click of a button and simply required a review for accuracy. This ability not only reduces time to complete a dispute but eliminates unnecessary data entry errors. A DCMS can load, copy, or transfer relevant data with the click of a button, eliminating the need for monotonous manual keying of data.
A DCMS solves many of daily challenges that disputes organizations encounter; but you must be willing to make the investment and configure the DCMS to work for your organization.
A DCMS will only be as effective as you are willing to make it. An underused or poorly configured DCMS can still drive inefficiencies in a dispute organization. Capitalize on your specialist’s proficiency today and deploy a DCMS into your organization, and truly become a model of efficiency in credit bureau dispute processing.
Bridgeforce brings deep expertise in consumer reporting and dispute operations, backed by a proven framework tested across more than 160 successful projects. Our team can assess your current dispute handling process, design best-in-class strategies, and guide implementation to improve efficiency, accuracy, and regulatory readiness. Whether you’re navigating high dispute volumes or preparing for exams, Bridgeforce helps you build a resilient, compliant dispute management operation. Contact us today.