What Can You Expect from Collection Agents

Services offered by individual collection agencies will obviously differ, but there are many common factors as to the services that you might expect to receive from any reputable agency that you employ:

• Collection by series of letters and/or telephone calls.
• Collection by a by a door-to-door collection team.
• Regular updates on the position of each case. This may be accessible on-line in some cases.
• Flexibility as to receipt of payments. It should be possible for payment to be made direct to you, rather than direct to the agency.
• A good litigation service via a reputable firm of Solicitors when necessary.

In addition, you should expect to receive:

• Maximum results from collection action.
• The speedy resolution of customer complaints via effective liaison with your company.
• A sympathetic and conciliatory approach toward honest defaulters.

The latter point is, of course, extremely important. As I think I have said many times before - bad times tend to get better, and memories tend to be very long, and it's therefore as well to remember that today's 'honestly defaulting company' may well turn out to be as good a customer in the future as it was in the past.

The safest way to go is therefore to use collection agencies judiciously if you are going to use them at all. Will the best will in the world, the very best of agencies could never know or understand your customers as well as you do, and could not evaluate long-standing relationships as well as you could yourself.