How Robinhood More Than Doubled Outbound Authentication Rates
Getting More Customers Past the First Gate of the Call
Robinhood partnered with Sanas to improve the clarity of live collections calls handled by its BPO partner in Mexico City. In a 30-day A/B pilot, outbound authentication more than doubled — turning calls that ended at "who's calling?" into conversations agents could actually move forward.
The Challenge
Robinhood's credit card collections operation was getting stuck at the very first step of the call. Only 11% of outbound calls to delinquent customers made it through authentication. Inbound calls fared better, but still reached just 27%.
For collections, authentication is the gate to everything that follows. If a customer won't verify their identity, the agent can't discuss payment options or move the account forward. And customers receiving an unexpected collections call have good reason to be cautious; if the agent is difficult to understand, that first moment of uncertainty can end the conversation before it starts.
"We just couldn't break through the authentication wall. When customers don't trust who's calling, nothing else happens. No payment discussions, no arrangements, nothing."Head of Collections and Recovery, Robinhood
The Pilot
Sanas's real-time accent translation and voice clarity made agents easier for U.S. customers to understand while keeping their own voices intact — one less reason for a wary customer to disengage.
Robinhood ran a 30-day A/B pilot with 12 agents split between Sanas-enabled and control groups, tracking authentication and collections conversion across inbound and outbound calls. Leadership and QA stakeholders also compared calls from the same agents with Sanas on and off, including blind listening sessions.
Robinhood didn't have to wait 30 days for a signal. Within the first week and a half, operations managers were seeing movement in Promise to Pay, and QA heard a noticeable improvement in call quality.
The Results
- 2.4x higher outbound authentication
Authentication climbed from 11% to 26%. - Inbound authentication improved
Rates rose from 27% to 34%. - More customers reached the payment conversation
Payment commitment rates among authenticated customers stayed consistent. The difference was that Sanas enabled substantially more customers to get through authentication in the first place. - Robinhood moved toward broader deployment
Following the pilot, collections leadership recommended Sanas to Robinhood’s larger customer experience organization.
Conclusion
For Robinhood, the pilot answered a straightforward question: Could clearer communication get more customers past the authentication wall?
The answer showed up in the numbers. More than twice as many outbound calls made it through, creating more opportunities for Robinhood's agents to have the payment conversations that had previously been out of reach.
"When you see right party contact rates more than double and call quality improve noticeably in your own listening sessions, you want the rest of the organization to benefit from it too."Head of Collections and Recovery, Robinhood
