The Human Touch in an Electronic World
As you know, we at ASA are always looking for new insights to borrower behavior in our experiments for student loan Wellness. Here's an insight that's relevant to us all.
According to ASA's data, borrowers who received our repayment guidance through print or electronic communications had a 19% lower chance of defaulting than the control group, who received no contact. While that's good news, it gets even better: When borrowers both received print or electronic communications and were reached by an ASA delinquency prevention specialist for one-on-one counseling, they were 52% less likely to default than the control segment.
Cut through the numbers, and a simple truth remains: the human touch still matters in the financial aid world.
This probably isn't news to your gut—I know it confirms my own instincts. How many of us have spent those ten minutes with a confused student, explaining the student loan process, and been gratified by his or her relieved smile when it all becomes clear? In this age of e-mails, text messaging, and Web sites, which remain valuable resources for student communication, it's good to know that personal interactions still hold the greatest weight.
So take heart, hardworking financial aid professionals. Our energy, wisdom, and personal touch are still the best tools to help our students finance their educations successfully and stay away from delinquency and default.
What have been some of your experiences — have you found that the old-fashioned human touch is still relevant in today's day and age?
Posted by Michael Ryan on December 03, 2007 at 11:40 AM EST
Post a comment
Note that comments will be posted after content review.
* All fields are required.
Close Window
Blog Author
Mike Ryan
Vice President of Borrower Services
Biography
Michael T. Ryan is Vice President of Borrower Services for American Student Assistance, a position he has held since joining ASA in February, 2003. Mr. Ryan heads ASA’s Borrower Services Division, which is responsible for all aspects of the management and delivery of service to borrowers in ASA’s education loan portfolio, including all default prevention and recovery efforts.
In his 20-plus year career in higher education financing, Mr. Ryan has held key management positions at the Massachusetts Educational Financing Authority (MEFA), and Key Education Resources (formerly Knight Tuition Payment Plans). As MEFA’s Associate Director for Programs and Operations, Mr. Ryan facilitated MEFA’s entry as a Federal Family Education Loan Program (FFELP) provider. He also played an instrumental role in the introduction of the U. Fund, (MEFA’s Section 529 College Investing Plan), managed MEFA’s U. Plan (Prepaid Tuition Program), and was responsible for the operation of MEFA’s loan programs.
While at Knight and Key, Mr. Ryan held progressively responsible management positions, from Account Manager to Senior Vice President.
Mr. Ryan is a graduate of Merrimack College.
Close WindowHow to use RSS:
Subscribe to American Student Assistance’s RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feeds to get our news and blog entries delivered directly to your desktop!
You need to install an RSS reader
in order to receive these feeds.
If you don’t have one already installed on you computer, here are some of the more popular options to download one for FREE:
For PC only
RssReader (http://www.rssreader.com)
Feed reader (http://www.feedreader.com/)
For Mac only
NetNewsWire (http://ranchero.com/netnewswire/)
NewsFire (http://www.newsfirerss.com/)
To view one of the American Student Assistance
feeds in your RSS Reader:
- Right click (control click, if you’re using a Mac) on the
icon next to the topic that interests you. - Select “copy shortcut” or “copy link location” from the menu.
- Paste the URL into your reader.
For example, you may already have an RSS Reader built into an existing homepage such as the popular examples below:
