One of the challenges that we hear from many of our clients is managing multiple collection agencies in order to recover bad debts. Collection managers who use multiple collection agencies recognize the potential upside to utilizing multiple agencies. Assigning allocate accounts to different agencies based on geography, type of account, status of account (such as a skip), first, second or third placement, and other factors may lead to greater recoveries than just using a single agency. Also, collection managers recognize the advantage of pitting agencies against each other in a positive manner to achieve significantly better results.
However this can present a challenge in that the more agencies collection managers use, the greater the risk of losing operational control. Here are some questions to ask before engaging in a multiple collection agency strategy:
- Do you know which agency has which accounts?
- Were some accounts accidently assigned to more than one agency?
- Is it easy to locate an account with an agency if it needs to be withdrawn from it?
- Is information flowing from one agency to another if agencies are used for second and third placements?
Managing multiple agencies can get complex pretty quickly, but rather than just using one agency to avoid these complexities, there is an alternative to consider:
- Loss of control can be overcome with effective systems that allocate and manage accounts assigned to multiple agencies.
These systems allow for the allocation, recall, activity tracking, performance reporting, and commission calculations or vendor audits. No more spreadsheets or other time consuming, error prone manual processes.
Experian can help with its agency allocation and management solutions through Tallyman Agency Allocation. Learn more about our Tallyman Agency Allocation software.