By The Intelitech Group
One of the biggest challenges in ARM is keeping your collectors motivated. At industry shows, classes regarding collector motivation are packed because we’re all seeking new ideas. And it’s understandable — a person’s patience is tested multiple times a day when working in customer service. Highly emotional responses from some consumers comes with the job, and on top of that collectors are expected to sit through many hours of compliance and training.
It is no surprise that there is such a high turnover rate throughout the industry. And it’s no wonder that as leaders we are constantly putting effort and energy into improving the situation.
We know the need for hiring and training programs will never go away, even with AI and online tools there is still a need for a helpful agent that can help someone through a challenging situation. And it seems there will always be laws and regulations to comply with and new collectors to train. One thing is for sure – some training programs can be unengaging, expensive, and demotivating. Setting yourself apart with an engaging and entertaining or “gamified” training program is an incredible hiring and retention tool.
Because of our history of working with collector training tools, and our launch of StackUp, we watch as our clients are experiencing the value that competition has in keeping their collectors engaged and motivated during the training process. There are many reasons why incorporating competition into your training program is a good idea. Here are just a few:
Reason #1: Goal-centric Actions
One of the reasons that competition motivates people to work hard and try their best in the human nature to want to “win” or “be the best”. Provided that the competition is fun and challenging, and most importantly doesn’t rely on negative reinforcement, then we see collectors willing to gamify their day and care about their spot on that leaderboard.
Often, collectors feel that training courses are pointless and have no end goal. Taking part in a competition gives the training some purpose as they feel that they are working towards a goal and that they have a target to achieve.
Reason #2: Fun Approach to Not-So-Fun Topics
One of our valued clients, John Fleming at MCOT, Inc, recently told us,
“StackUp is a great way to make training fun for your entire staff. It takes less than an hour a month but the knowledge you gain is priceless. Collectors can actually see improvements from one month to the next. They’re learning and don’t realize it because they’re having fun. “
Getting people exciting about FDCPA is no small feat. A simple reason why competition is effective in helping collectors to learn is that it usually involves a fun activity.
When collectors are having fun learning, they are more likely to retain the information. If the goal is to retain more information than your peer, you’ll likely get more out of it than if you weren’t in a competition at all.
Reason #3: Reward Systems
A competitive environment makes it possible to monitor disengagement. Collectors are held accountable for their work and achievements. Competition in general is a strong incentive to push yourself beyond your normal call of duty.
An organized competitive environment tends to reward those that stand out from the rest. Everyone likes to win, and earning that win can feel self-validating. This is why your teachers gave you gold stars on your paper in elementary school. Simply doing your job well isn’t enough to stand out. To beat the rest, competition can encourage collectors to go above and beyond to do their best in learning different laws and regulations.
Announcing 2019 Annual StackUp Competition
At The Intelitech Group, we are excited to begin our annual StackUp competition. Each year we hold an annual collector competition that allows collectors in the ARM industry to compete against each other in their knowledge of industry laws and regulations. The Intelitech Group rewards the top collectors in the industry, as well as the top collector in each organization. To learn more about StackUp’s 2019 Annual competition click here.
Related Content
A few weeks ago, we wrote a blog article about how collector positivity is driven by access to propensity score. If you haven’t read it, we recommend you check it out here. Data enrichment empowers collectors and helps them keep their heads up. It is very easy to get pulled into a negative mindset without some sort of account prioritization strategy.
