Empowerment As A Management Skill In Collection Agencies

Advice For
In-House
Debt Collection

Empow­er­ment As A Man­age­ment Skill In Col­lec­tion Agencies

By Dean Kaplan

Good man­age­ment skills help col­lec­tion agen­cies and com­pa­nies in gen­eral to stay com­pet­i­tive and suc­cess­ful. The term “man­age­ment skills” is a broad cat­e­gory which includes moti­vat­ing, del­e­ga­tion and a newer term called “empow­er­ment.” This is the final arti­cle in a five series deal­ing with how excel­lent man­age­ment skills lead to increased suc­cess for col­lec­tion agen­cies and credit departments.

Empow­er­ment is del­e­ga­tion, but goes even fur­ther. While del­e­ga­tion of respon­si­bil­ity involves pass­ing respon­si­bil­ity and some attached author­ity onto col­lec­tors, empow­er­ment goes beyond. When a col­lec­tor is del­e­gated a respon­si­bil­ity, his or her man­ager still remains the per­son ulti­mately respon­si­ble for the com­ple­tion of the task. When a man­ager empow­ers a col­lec­tor, the total task or process is unmis­tak­ably passed onto the col­lec­tor includ­ing the required author­ity, and the ulti­mate responsibility.

Recently, at our col­lec­tion agency, we went through a process of iden­ti­fy­ing ways to stream­line and improve effi­ciency in our day to day oper­a­tions. One of the big dis­cov­er­ies we made was that we needed to empower our col­lec­tors. For one col­lec­tor, we empow­ered them to be respon­si­ble for the claim from start to fin­ish. When a claim comes into our col­lec­tion agency, it is assigned a spe­cific col­lec­tor. That col­lec­tor is then respon­si­ble for set­ting up the files, col­lect­ing and orga­niz­ing all doc­u­ments, research­ing the claim to deter­mine the cor­rect con­tact infor­ma­tion, mak­ing all col­lec­tion calls, inputting all infor­ma­tion into our claims data­base, follow-up calls, e-mails, faxes, etc., nego­ti­at­ing terms with the debtor, com­mu­ni­cat­ing with the client includ­ing month-end sta­tus reports and keep­ing man­age­ment at our agency appraised of progress made. This has been an incred­i­bly suc­cess­ful change for our col­lec­tion agency. By empow­er­ing our debt col­lec­tors, they are able to process the claims faster, more accu­rately, and more suc­cess­fully than ever before. The author­ity they have been given has made them feel trusted and val­ued. Morale at our agency has never been bet­ter, and our clients are extremely happy too.

Empow­er­ment makes the empow­ered per­son feel wanted and appreciated.

Empow­er­ment and a solid func­tion­ing work envi­ron­ment go hand in hand. When col­lec­tors are empow­ered the way that our col­lec­tors have been, they need to know that all the tools they need are avail­able and at their fin­ger­tips. They need a state-of-the-art claims data sys­tem. They need to have been trained in all facets of the debt col­lec­tion process and have a well-defined sys­tem to fol­low. All of these things require that man­age­ment take the time to really under­stand the col­lec­tion process and train all col­lec­tors to per­form the process the same way. If the sys­tems are in place and man­age­ment is com­mit­ted to empow­er­ing col­lec­tors, then col­lec­tors have a very good chance of being suc­cess­ful. In our case, we did the hard work of devel­op­ing a well-defined col­lec­tion process. Our sys­tems are up-to-date and our col­lec­tors have been well-trained. Taken together, we were ready to empower our col­lec­tors, and they were ready and eager to be empow­ered. It is not sur­pris­ing that so far the change has been successful.

Agen­cies, like any oper­at­ing busi­ness, need capa­ble man­agers and debt col­lec­tors to pro­mote prof­itabil­ity. Man­agers who can empower col­lec­tors will be bet­ter able to pro­mote pro­duc­tiv­ity and good morale within their depart­ments. Click here if you missed the first arti­cle in this series Moti­va­tion Is A Key To Suc­cess For Col­lec­tion Agen­cies. Click here if you missed the fourth arti­cle in the series Del­e­ga­tion Strate­gies for Col­lec­tion Agen­cies.

The Kaplan Group is a bou­tique col­lec­tion agency spe­cial­iz­ing in large (over $10,000) debt col­lec­tions due from busi­nesses. Founded in 1991, the com­pany has a stel­lar rep­u­ta­tion (A+ rat­ing with the Bet­ter Busi­ness Bureau) and is rec­og­nized as one of the lead­ing col­lec­tion agen­cies for results on large and com­plex mat­ters.

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