On Training For Collections

So we have a lot of new people starting at our company, and I’m watching training happening around me, and it brings up a very important topic that I really haven’t addressed in any of my previous blogs over the last decade – how do you train a new collector?

It’s not like you can sit someone down, have them watch a 30 minute training video, and let them loose – collections is a complex thing, with negotiation, tone, empathy, legislation, privacy, and performance that all get mixed together.  Different collectors have different styles and strengths.  I’ve always referred to it as a ‘strange golf bag of skills’ that makes a good collector.

As well, it’s not like people grow up and say ‘I want to be a bill collector when I grow up’, go to bill collector school, intern at a collection agency, and then get a full time role.  People just fall into collections.  I was supposed to end up as an English teacher when I went to university.  So when we hire someone, what’s the best way to train them?


What Not To Do

Well, I can tell you, having worked for a number of agencies, the first most important way to *not* train a collector is sit them next to an experienced collector for half a day, and then say ‘good luck’ and throw them on the phones.  But I’ve seen that at numerous agencies.

The other way to not train a collector is sit them in a classroom for 4 weeks to learn about the FDCPA … crushing their soul and brain, and then *not* hand them the actual FDCPA, which is 23 pages.

It’s also important to work on walking before running – train on what’s legal and allowed before getting into the fine points of negotiation.


The New Collector And Their First Few Days

Starting a new job for anyone is a daunting experience – there’s a lot to learn, outside the skills needed for the job – learning everyone’s name, figuring out the culture, learning software – it’s a huge rush of information, and people will be worn out just from learning in a compressed time frame.

The good thing though, is their mind is wide open to learning everything – keep that mindset open as long as you can.  Lay out a roadmap of what they should learn, and in what order.  You can have a time frame for them to learn it, but some folks are fast learners while others take more time – be flexible with the time frame, but keep the ‘order of operations’ on what to learn as the plan.

When training someone, try to teach them one thing at a time.  You can’t learn a software program and negotiation skills and legislation on collections all at once.  Try to pick one thing at a time, let them master it and feel good about it, and then move on to the next thing.  When a new collector is on the phone and does three things not quite right, try to focus on one thing to fix at a time, so the new person feels they are accomplishing something.

And while they are on the phone with a consumer the first while, don’t try to tell them what to do during the call – their mental energy should be focused on the call itself, and you can review what went right and wrong after the call ends.

Make sure to give positive feedback – not every account will be collected.  If a consumer is uncooperative but the new collector says everything right, point that out.  And of course, when their call results in collection, make sure they know they did a good job.

It’s also important to make sure you explain the why of what we do, not just the how – sometimes its legislative, sometimes its learning from experience.  If you explain the why, you are more likely to gain trust of the new person to be open to the training.


Learning By Doing, But Keep a Lifeline There

Sticking someone in a classroom is my definition of hell – people don’t learn by being told what to do, they learn best by doing it.  That doesn’t mean throwing them to the wolves, but there’s no reason they can’t do the typing on the software while an experienced collector makes calls for a day, so they learn that part through experience. 

It also means getting them on the phone in a reasonable time frame (my personal preference is day 3 or 4), and let them stumble along for a bit.

While you should have someone sitting and coaching them for each call, you don’t want to hover over them for days and days – you want to ease back as the new person gains confidence.  Will every call be perfect?  Of course not … but you want to keep a mentor or experienced person nearby to coach them when they hear something slightly out of line, helping the new person develop good habits.


The Three Month Crash

When a new person starts, they are open to learning anything.  And when they start succeeding, they start to relax – that can also lead to them not being critical of themselves, and not thinking to themselves after the call ‘what could I have done better?’.  That can lead to sloppiness and a crash in results.  Collections requires a sharp mind, and self-reflection and improvement constantly.

When a new person has their success slump in their third month or so (and I’ve seen that in my years it happens in about 50% of inexperienced collectors), make sure you don’t crush them and tell them they’ve failed, go back to the training process, figure out where they’ve made a left turn at Albuquerque, and work on fixing those things.  And then try to instill that sharpness, that self-reflection that’s going to be needed in the long run.


When Experienced People Start Failing

It’s hard to tell an experienced person that they are failing without them taking it personally – but maybe they got sent home during the pandemic, and developed bad habits, or maybe small bad habits have accumulated over a year or two, where one small word choice isn’t harmful, but five to ten little things add up to be a problem, or they’ve become frustrated with the job of collections (which isn’t for everyone), and it starts coming across in those calls.

The important thing is to have a private conversation with the person, talk about they ‘why’ not the how … what do they think is failing, talk about statistics and compare them over the last several months, or to other folks on the team, and make sure they understand some remedial training is in order, but it’s not a punishment, it’s support and an outreach of help.  Make sure the team member opens up their mind and is willing to accept assistance, and not feeling like their back is against the wall.

And for goodness sake, get rid of all the soul crushing things at your company that can wreck a person’s morale like a white board.


Conclusion

Training is really ongoing for all levels of experience in collections – new portfolios come in, new legislation is passed, new tools are added to the collector’s arsenal.  The important thing is keeping them open minded, and building a win-win scenario where they are happy to work at your company, and you are there to help them with whatever they need, whether they are new, experienced, stumbling, or succeeding.

Got training tools or tips?  Success stories?  Leave a comment or drop me a line.  When we build successful, professional collection staff, we improve the industry as a whole.

Thanks kindly,

Blair DeMarco-Wettlaufer
KINGSTON Data & Credit
Largo, FL
226-946-1730
blair@receivableaccounts.com