Serving the needs of today's Receivables Management industry.
*Lower Total Cost of *Ownership
*No Installation Required
*No Daily IT Maintenance
*Data Backup performed daily without your IT
*System is available 24/7
*Increased Productivity of Collections Staff
*No Need to Hire Specialized Systems Administrators
*No Software to Install
*Easy to import and export data files
*Data access is fast and secure
Wincollect Software users can move to a server based system if you grow and wish to take on the IT responsibility.
Some collection agencies have employed virtual agents with success. Some start with a few select agents, others have a balanced approach with a number inside and some virtual. Ohers have totally gone the virtual route.
The fear of having remote agents comes from the sense of losing control. Some people need constant and visible supervision, but the best performers will perform well in either environment. In fact, some agencies will start the virtual agent “experiment” when their best collector goes on maternity leave or some other life event occurs requiring them to work from home.
Not wanting to lose a good performer, the agency management decides to accommodate their employee and set up remote access. Most often the virtual is a great success, because they were responsible and effective inside the office.
Technology provides a number of features that provide the necessary control. The software system will allow you to monitor the productivity. The communication system, either phone system or predictive dialer system, will provide the ability to monitor calls and conference calls when a supervisor is required. The collector signs into their queue and works accounts much the same as they would from their office desktop.
The technology required for the virtual agent is simply a desktop or laptop computer, network software, a reasonably fast internet connection and a headset. The collector can communicate with the supervisor via messaging or email or by voice. The virtual agent can sign in at scheduled times that are mutually convenient.
The virtual agent does not require office space and since you only pay them for the time they are signed in to the system there is no down time. The key is employing remote agents that will perform well without the visible supervision. Performance reviews are the same for the virtual collector as they are for the inside collector.
If the collector makes their quota and performs professionally you have a “win-win” for you and your collector. Your employee eliminates the daily commute and you reclaim or avoid the cost of office space.
A good supervisor will adapt to having remote agents. As long as the revenue stream is consistent everyone benefits.
SEO is an acronym for “search engine optimization”. It will help prospective customers find your web site when they are searching for a collection agency.
You may have spent a good deal of money designing your web site just a few years ago, but it may not be designed well by Google’s standards. Google ranks your web site using a formula that considers content, activity on your site, how many other web sites refer to your site (referred to as “backlinks”), and frequency of updates on your site.
What are the keywords that your prospects will use to find your business? The keywords emphasize your specific market expertise and location. For example: “Boston medical collection agency” of “medical collections” may be keywords that need to be strategically positioned on your main page.
Each Google search results page includes organic search results (free to those who appear and based primarily on SEO attributes) and are listed separately from paid advertisements (Pay-Per-Click ads that cost firms money each time they are clicked).
If you want to develop your website’s SEO on your own, we recommend starting here:
• Google Webmaster Guidelines
• Google 101: How Google crawls, indexes and serves the web.
However, if your time is better spent running your business, not climbing the learning curve for online marketing and working on getting enough links to your site, etc., let a pro define and direct your website efforts. Even if you love your current web site, not only improving its SEO will get you ranked higher in free Google searches, but a marketing firm that understands “site conversion” can help your website turn those new visitors into qualified leads (people who will fill in forms or call you so you know who they are and what they’re looking to do).
Site tuning (for conversion) can deliver results quickly. SEO for Google search is a deliberate process where results are not immediate, but within 3 months you will begin to move up in ranking and in 6 months you could find yourself on the first page.
How many more visitors might you get each month if you also invest to get a first page listing? What is each new customer who “converts” from just being a visitor to becoming an identified lead worth to you? Once you have these two approaches working in your favor, you’ll be able to impress them when writing about the services that you offer.
When planning your marketing budget, creating and improving your website should be at the top of your list. We’ve used an online marketing firm to do the same for our website and know, first hand, that website ranking and site conversion can greatly help any firm generate more business. Don’t let more time go by where your use of the Internet is less than your business deserves. Get the ball rolling on this today.
Recent business periodicals list a collection agency business as a hot startup. The debt buying segment of the Collection Industry has seen incredible growth over the past decade. The traditional collection agency business collecting on a contingency basis continues to perform, but the margins have been stretched in recent years.
The four largest publicly traded debt buyers include Encore, Asta Funding Inc., Asset Acceptance Capital Corp. and Portfolio Recovery Associates Inc. In 2010, together they purchased nearly $20 billion in distressed debt and expected to recover three times what they spent buying that debt according to the Association of Credit and Collection Professionals, a trade group.
Encore in 2010 recorded revenue of $382 million and profits of $49 million. Impressive growth and profits have not been realized by all. The price of buying charged off debt ran up before the mortgage debacle. Prices went as high as 14 cents of the original dollar in debt. Prices are typically in the 3 to 5 cent range depending on the age of the debt and how many times the debt has changed hands. More recently prices have settled down to prices more in line with levels seen before the market collapse in 2007.
Making a reasonable return on purchased debt is not for the inexperienced. Evaluating and purchasing good paper at reasonable price requires research. Recently, the number of buyers has increased to the point that the cost of buying receivables makes the margin less attractive.
The debt buying industry started in the 1990s. Early adapters made some great returns. The guys that were doing traditional collections on a contingency basis for some of the big banks and finance companies started to purchase large portfolios of charged off accounts. They loaded thousands of accounts into their collection databases, sent out several letters, made dozens of calls on their autodialers, levied suits in the courts, and then would credit report on accounts with judgements.
In time, many of those accounts that were credit reported would begin to reap some returns. The process would work, but would require due diligence and patience. The process worked for the few that had presence in the industry, a well defined process, and technology to work the accounts.
Wincollect Software began offering Bad Debt Collection Software as a service about five years. The first ten years in the Collection Software business, we provided software strictly as a premised based solution. Over the past several years, many companies have approached us about starting a new collection agency. Some have been very successful and others not so. Software as a service or hosted software reduces the initial cost of your collection software eliminating the cost of providing your own server and the need for an IT manager.
Those that have been successful typically have been those from the collection industry. A salesman or operations manager from an established collections company decides to go on their own. They have a good understanding of how a collection agency runs and most often have a client or clients that they have done business with previously. With any startup businesses, there is a fair amount of initial investment that needs to be made before the first dollars come in the door.
To start you need Collections Software, accounting software, computers, phones, an office, a web site, sales contracts, collectors, insurance, state licenses, and a manager to run the operation. Once that is all in place, the keys to success are setting up good processes, hiring and training good collectors and managers that know how to collect money.
Good Collection Software can automate many of the day to day processes, provide reporting to manage the business, and provide an easy integration with your clients to import and export data files and provide reports. Technology today is much more sophisticated than it was just a few years ago and collection software is more affordable. New collection software technology is superior to systems employed just 5 years ago providing web access for your clients and the ability to automate many daily tasks.
Americans charged more than a Trillion dollars on Debit Cards last year. The volume of Debit Card transactions is now greater than Credit Card transactions and that trend continues to expand. Last year the Durbin Amendment was passed which limits the fees that can be charged for Debit Card transactions. Senator Dick Durbin authored the Amendment because the interchange fees were considered excessive compared to the actual cost of the Debit Card transaction. The Durbin Amendment went into effect on 10-1-2011.
This new amendment reduces the cost to process debit transactions. Many payment processing companies are passing on these savings to their merchants. If you have not been contacted by your merchant processor about the new savings from debit card processing rates, this maybe a good time to get a review.
Using the right database for your application is critical. Your Software Database is the engine that drives your Collection Software Application. Some databases are designed to perform basic routines for small groups. If the engine is under powered, then it will slow down and sometimes stop as the number of users or tasks grows.
Microsoft’s SQL Express provides a good answer for the price performance issue. If you are a small group, then you can start with MS SQL Express and get a good database engine with a great feature set at no additional cost. If your business grows and you need to expand, Microsoft has a reasonable expansion plan that allows you to increase your system performance to Microsoft SQL Standard then SQL Enterprise Editions as your needs grow.
The alternative is to start with a low end database engine that will not perform well or at all once you grow beyond a few users. My suggestion is that you plan for success. If you have no intention of growing beyond a few users, then a smaller engine may suffice.
If you plan to grow, be certain that your database will grow with you. Conversions are expensive and time consuming and can be avoided when you plan for success!
When things do not go right in professional sports, the coach often talks about getting back to basics. Playing a football game problems occur when defenders miss their assignment. Someone does not maintain their designated position allowing a significant loss of yardage. Teammates will help when possible, but the team performs best when everyone does their job. The team will practice their plays repeatedly to assure that everyone performs their task correctly. The team also will practice slight variations to account for changes that are likely to occur.
When everyone on the team performs well, then the result will be positive. A good play will often work even when a few miss their assignment. Likelihood of success decreases substantially when several miss their assignments.
In the Debt Collection Business, you have more control than they have in a football game. You can control most of your activities including when letters are sent, phone calls are made, and the message that is delivered. The timing of each letter or contact can be determined by the manager and stored in the software. If the debtor does not pay in a timely fashion, your collection software can automatically send a sterner letter or move the account to a more aggressive strategy.
Once the account requires a personal contact, the training and practice will determine your level of success. So, cover the basic presentation when you get a debtor on the phone and then practice your collector’s response to the various objections to pay. A well planned software strategy combined with well trained collectors will result in good revenue flow and a successful team.
When you are courting a new client, you emphasize your success with existing customers. You increased collections for Citibank by 33% over the past 2 years and increased revenue for Mass General Hospital by $2 million over the last 12 months. Both are great accomplishments, but your prospect may be more inclined to work with a Collection Agency that will make his job easier.
What are your prospects biggest issues dealing with his current collection agencies. You may learn that his/her issues concern getting reports on current performance. How much money has been collected month to date? How many accounts have made payments in the past 12 months and what is the total dollars collected? How many accounts have paid their balance in full? Can I get a report that shows my current inventory of accounts placed? Can I view last month’s invoice?
Currently, the prospect calls his customer service representative and asks for this information. The prospect has given up calling and asking for any special reports from his current agencies because he or she needs the information for their management immediately.
Here is your opportunity to show your prospect how you can solve these deficiencies. Sitting down at their PC or from your laptop, show them they have full access to their data including the ability to modify existing accounts. They received a direct payment today for $1000. You log them into their client web portal and show them how they can enter the payment directly. Then you show them a step down report that they can view. Print that report for them. Show them their current invoice that shows you paid them $250,000 last month.
When you finish viewing their new web portal, ask him or her, “what else would you like to see?” Now you will see them light up! There is virtually no bit of information that they cannot find or report that you can create for them. Grab their logo and have it displayed on their web portal dashboard. Print it out with the list of reports they have immediately available for them to view, download, or print.
The four main types of phone systems available today are the PBX system, Key system, KSU-less system and VoIP. VoIP provides voice calling through the Internet.
VoIP is less expensive and provides many other benefits.
The VoIP business phone system allows remote offices to be linked to a single phone system and have extension-to-extension connections. Audio quality is no longer a consideration. VoIP phone systems have replaced the traditional phone system in many collections companies.
Average savings of moving to VoIP has been 30% to 50% on monthly telephone bills.
Some advanced features of a business VoIP phone service could include desk-to-desk calling, connecting all your remote offices in various locations with a single telephone service. Services including conference calling, automated attendants, and voice messaging are readily available with most VoIP systems. A high-speed Internet connection provides call clarity at lower cost.
Features like voicemail to email, auto attendance, call waiting and forwarding are bundled with VoIP solutions
Hosted PBX or Virtual PBX services are a very cost-efficient way for small business enterprises to utilize the best business VoIP phone service. With the hosted PBX service, the equipment remains with the service provider. Any problems with the service are resolved remotely by the provider. The hosted service provides redundancy and backups. System changes and updates are taken care of by the service provider, as well as, support.
