Re; My collection staff sucks!

Since 2007 I have seen the decline of the skill set of debt collectors in the US and it is at an all time low today. As a consultant to the ARM industry I see this daily and I have several ways to deal with the problem.

When the economy was really pumping in 2005-2007 or so the debt collection industry was at a high point and debt collection was easy. Debtors, now called consumers had the availability to get loans so money was flowing in debt collection, it was just financial counseling. After 2007 and the economy fell the ability of the debtor to get a loan was gone and so was the ability to collect money from debtors.

Along with that change in economy came a stoppage of training and development in the ARM industry which has continued until recently. Back when the money was easy to collect, training was not a big deal, just get someone on the phone and you had collection results. Now collections is much harder due to not only changes in the financial landscape in the US but in compliance costs as well.

With the birth of the “consumer” and the death of the “debtor” we have also changed the way we do business. As the ARM industry started using the term consumer over debtor a change in mentality also was created. The truth is “They are consumers.” So as that mentality changed so did the mentality of the average collection agent. But we did not provide new tools to collect from the new consumers. Training and development was and is still a last resort not a daily task. Managers would rather fire and hire than train and develop. Why? Because they don’t know how to train, that skill set is gone in todays C level managers.

So how do you solve this problem? You already know the answer its training and development but how do you do that is the real question. Most managers do not have a good training program. Most agencies I see just sit the new staff member next to their best collector to be trained. This is wrong in so many ways.

I have developed an extensive training  program that I can facilitate or help my client facilitate that starts with what is a debt? and ends with negotiation skills. It is very extensive on everything from credit reporting to an explanation of each bankruptcy type. This is how I solve the problem.

My second recommendation is to move some staff to Jamaica. The results of collectors in Jamaica is 90-110% of those in the US. The staff is much more eager to come to work and be taught and work for 1/3 the wages. I have helped several agencies set up in Montego Bay and in every instance the staff there is out performing the US collectors.

Either way you go you have to embrace the fact your staff must be trained and then they must be slowly developed into better staff. Its a big commitment and if you need a road map or some help just give me a call.