Our Collection Philosophy
Every consumer should pay every account in full. That is our philosophy. We realize, however, that won't always happen. Nevertheless, we approach each account as though it is 100% collectable. This is one reason why we are so successful. We also realize, as mentioned before, that collection agencies are not the most popular businesses. In fact, we know people intentionally ignore our calls and letters and deliberately avoid all contact with our company. We do not, however, let that discourage us. We have the skills, techniques, and tools necessary to collect from people—even if they’re eluding us.
So what happens when we make that first contact with a consumer? Well, we keep it simple. We start by introducing ourselves. We explain who we are and why we are calling. We give them our required legal disclaimers and tell them how much they owe and to whom they owe. Then we say, "We're calling to determine your intentions on this account." Then we wait...
This approach puts the consumer in a unique situation. Most collection agencies do not ask the consumer what their intentions are. We take this approach because it finally puts the consumer on the spot and makes them decide what they intend to do about the bill. This is an important psychological point in the consumer's path of non-payment. The fact that they must actually verbalize their intentions gives us a huge advantage. Therefore, we wait. When they finally tells us what their intentions are, we know which direction we should take on that account. It is a much more effective way of collecting.
Most of the time, a consumer tells us they do want to pay their account, but they have a reason for not paying. This is when we use our expert problem-solving skills to help the consumer identify payment options.
Sometimes, however, a consumer does not have an excuse for not paying, and they do not agree to pay. They give us the same reasons they gave you for not paying. When this happens, we tell them, in a professional manner, that our next step will be to recommend legal action to our client (if appropriate, of course). We have found over the years that unless we take legal action, many people will never pay. In addition, the fact that we take people to court when needed is one of the reasons our recovery rate is more than double the national average!
That’s our philosophy on collecting. But what happens if we cannot get the consumer on the phone? What do we do? Well, as it turns out, most consumers never respond to our letters or calls. When this happens, we simply call a relative, friend, neighbor, or their land lord. We then verify the consumer still lives at the address we have for them, and that they still have a job. If we can verify these two things, we will recommend legal action to our client to collect the account. It does not really matter if the consumer avoids us. They will still end up paying their bill once the legal action has started. Our willingness to take the appropriate legal action, when necessary, allows us to stand out from the competition and provide you with double, triple and sometimes quadruple the return on your accounts! Click here to watch a video that shows you how: Analysis Video
As you can see, we produce exceptional results because of our unique approach. We believe that if someone refuses to pay, or has the ability to pay but does not, legal action is the best option. You might be asking yourself, "How can they feel comfortable with this approach in today's litigious society? Are they worried about being sued themselves?" We would have to answer with, "No, we are not." It all has to do with how we run our business on a daily basis. We are meticulous about being the best. We pride ourselves on striving to be the most professional collection agency in the country. We only hire the best people, and we continually invest thousands of dollars a year in training and retraining them. We are constantly investing in top-of-the-line hardware and software, so we have the most advanced tools to do the job. Moreover, we never compromise our values. We are 100% honest in everything we do, and we always choose the high road. These factors allow us to take legal action on accounts when necessary, with confidence that it’s the right decision. And we collect a lot more money because of it.