According to the studies carried out in UK by the Courts Service and the Behavioural Insights Team, text messaging has an impact on fine repayments.
The Experiment
The two organizations worked together to test whether or not sending text messages to people who had failed to pay their court fines would encourage them to pay prior to a bailiff being sent to their door. In an initial trial 1,054 individuals were randomly allocated to five groups. Some were sent no text message (control group), while the other were sent either a standard reminder text or a more personalized message that included the name of the recipient, the amount owed or both. The second trial was conducted on a larger sample (3,633 individuals) and aimed to determine which aspects of the personalized messages were influential in increasing payment rates.
Results
The first trial as well as the second revealed the same pattern: text messages can be highly effective in collecting unpaid fines, especially when they contain the name of the receiver.
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| Response Rate to Delivered Messages in the Initial Trial |
To Remember
Not only people are more likely to pay their overdue fines if they receive a text message containing their name, but the value of repayments will go up at a very low cost.
Source: Haynes, L., Service, O., Goldacre, B. & Torgerson, D (2012). "Test, Learn, Adapt: Developing Public Policy with Randomised Controlled Trials". London: Cabinet Office Behavioural Insights Team. Retrieved from https://www.gov.uk on November 19, 2013
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