In the UK the current economic climate has seen an increased need for the services of debt collection agencies. At the same time, the performance of many of these debt collection agencies has been exposed as they struggle to achieve required collection rates in a more difficult market.
Collection rates in general are down around 20%. Many debt collection agencies are approaching their clients to renegotiate pricing as they cannot achieve adequate return on their existing models. I'm not surprised. Many agencies have low balled pricing to attract business and relied on automated diallers (think battery chickens on a workstation) to churn through the work, putting the customer relationship at risk.
But it doesn't have to be this way. There are agencies out there who have invested in the right kind of technology.....the kind that allows dedicated resources to be applied to a client account, and for an effective personal relationship to be developed between collector and debtor. And guess what? The collectors who work for these agencies actually enjoy what they do and that's reflected in the way they speak to debtors.
The tougher economic climate has exposed the stack 'em high sell 'em cheap providers. Their old fashioned, poor quality service should be consigned to the past as both client and economic climate require an increasingly different approach.