By The Intelitech Group
In today’s dynamic revenue recovery environment, we need to be sure we are giving our collection staff every opportunity to be successful. There are many pieces to this ever-changing puzzle, so I thought I would share with you some ways to help collectors be more productive through automation, skills enhancement, and work queue creation. Over this 3-part series of Tips, I will try to bring to light some ideas for you to consider when setting your collectors up for success, beginning with automation.
Automation is essential to success, and it does not need to be complicated. The benefit of streamlining processes through automation is that it provides both consistency and efficiency in your workflow. If you require collectors to make individual decisions based on the population of data elements (i.e., Legal escalation, Bankruptcy, or Deceased hits), you may want to consider creating an automated process to do the work for them. An automatic process will not only provide your collectors with more time to work accounts, but it takes away the need for them to review and evaluate each account’s data for escalation.
Are your collectors manually entering repetitive keystroke responses on accounts multiple times a day? If so, consider reviewing or creating Macros, Actions Codes, or other automated processes that your platform already provides within your software. If your collectors feel they do the same repetitive actions or keystrokes, encourage them to submit suggestions for change. Automating these actions increases efficiency, and a positive change originating from a collector’s recommendation will give them a sense of pride in knowing they helped others be successful.
Streamlining productivity with automated processes will not only help mitigate the risk of potential compliance infractions and consumer complaints but also allows you to take managerial decision making off the collection floor. With automation, you can consider reviewing accounts to pull ‘uncollectable’ or ‘special handling’ accounts off the queue. Isolating unworkable or high-risk accounts from a queue allows your collectors to be more productive by enabling them to work viable accounts.
As always, you may want to contact your valued partners to consult with them on their best practices regarding the automation tools available to you. Also, look for my future tips in this series on “Setting your Collectors up for Success.”
Author
 |
Billie Barnes is an Operational Consultant for The Intelitech Group and has 25 years of ARM experience, including 13 years at Columbia Ultimate, 2 enlightening years at an Agency Law firm, as well as 11 years with The Intelitech Group (TIG). She has been a contributor to several articles in past TIG publications, with a focus on inspiring others to become more engaged in their work environments. Contact Billie |
