We have a national client that sends us second placement, or reassigned accounts on a regular basis. Thousands of files that have been previously worked by another agency, and passed to us after twelve months. An each time we call a batch of these files, we inevitably run into the following scenario:
"Bob, we represent XYZ Financial, and you
have an outstanding balance of $859.65.
We've be assigned the file because you did not resolve your account with
ABC Collections, to affect your credit rating."
"But I want to pay the account! I offered ABC Collections $200 a month, and
they refused it!"
So, because ABC Collections stuck to "payment in
full", they received nothing. We,
of course, took the $200 a month because it was reasonable, and had the account
resolved.
Yes, it is a collection agency's role to resolve an account,
and absolutely payment in full is preferrable to $20 a month payments over 42
months, but the overarching goal is to resolve the accounts as efficiently
as possible. Collections is an
intelligent process, not a brute force attempt to turn people upside down and
shake them for money. The point is to
work out the best arrangement possible, that the debtor can keep.
Some agencies hinder their own success by building bad
commisison structures or file I management
protocols. A lot of agencies still use
the outmoded 'front-line pif/second-line 3
pdc/third-line-nice-guy-will-take-anything' tiered collection process, pooled
predictive dialing, or even keep partial payments as 'house commissions'. And
that's crazy. The point should be
efficiency, efficiency, efficiency.
I distinctly remember an account I had many years ago -- it
was a landlord-tenant judgment against a sweet old lady for about $9000. I called her and advised her that she was in
collections. She was horrified, and
offered $100 a month from her $900 Canadian Pension Plan at the end of each
month. The truth was, she couldn't
afford that, and her payments would bounce if I took it. I refused her $100 a month payments, and told
her to pay $30. You know what happened? That sweet old lady came into our office on
the first day of each month in person, with her walker, and paid in cash. We never had to call her -- not once. After about 10 months, she missed a payment,
and we called, and she came in around the 7th of the month, apologizing for her
'small stroke that put her in the hospital for a few days', and paid her usual
$30. This woman was doing everything she
could to resolve her account. And after
about 16 months, she came in with a cardboard box filled with twenty dollar
bills to pay off her account because her older sister had passed away and left
her some money. This is a perfect
example of someone paying their account to the best of their ability, in the
most efficient manner. On the life of
the file, we made exactly three phone calls.
Yes, don't take the $20 a month payment if the debtor has
the funds to pay, and yes create a sense of urgency and authority to make sure
that arrangements are followed, but don't stubbornly demand payment in full and
nothing but payment in full from 100 people because 2 will come up with it --
that's short sighted, and a losing proposition.
If anyone has questions about payment arrangements,
negotiation, how collection agencies handle payments, or our company's APPRAISE
process that outlines negotiation and treatment of consumers, I'm always happy
to chat.
Blair DeMarco-Wettlaufer
KINGSTON Data & Credit
Cambridge, Ontario
226-946-1730
bwettlaufer@kingstondc.com
No comments:
Post a Comment