Increasing Confirmation Response Rates: Prenotifications, Monetary Incentives and Addressee Differences

This article reports the results of a research effort that measured the response enhancing effectiveness of two sizes of small monetary incentives and prenotification letters. The measurements were obtained during the audit of the installment and commercial loan balances of a medium-sized bank located in Central Florida. The data were analyzed with logistic regression. The analyses revealed that prenotification letters tended to encourage timely responses but they did not increase overall response levels. This was true for both types of loan balances. Small monetary incentives were found to be effective with installment loans in certain situations but ineffective with commercial loans.