It's a Two-Way Street

Your company has a right to expect good service from a collection agency - but an agency has a right to expect certain things of you, too.

The main things an agency wants from a client is that cases be passed over sooner rather than later, that the client liaises with agency personnel fully and responds to queries and correspondence and requests for copy invoices and statements quickly, and that a decision-maker is readily available and prepared to be flexible about payment plans and settlement offers.

Obviously, an agency is also going to want your Company to complete any instruction form, letter or agreement in order to enable it to take action, a provide a precise definition of the action required in each case, and prompt settlement of its accounts – but it’s really the factors set out in the first paragraph of this post that will determine the success or failure of the relationship.

Nobody enjoys trying to collect debts that have been gathering dust for months. Such debts may not be uncollectible, but they are likely to be much more difficult and time-consuming (and more expensive) to deal with than a ‘fresh’ debt would be.

No collection agent enjoys having to wait on a creditor to provide essential information when a debtor is waiting on him or her to come back with it.

And no one enjoys dealing with a client who is hard to get hold of and unwilling to accept reality in the form of reasonable payment plans and offers of settlement which are effectively offers of part-payment.