Bang for the Buck: Efficiently Training and Motivating Collectors

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Debt collection, like any other business, has a skill set.  Not everyone is born with the proper skills and mindset that make an effective collection professional and even those who do have the right mix of mental and emotional attributes still require training.  Many collection agencies – especially smaller shops – struggle with staff turnover and the sense that they waste hundreds of hours and untold amounts of money and resources training collectors who then leave the industry shortly thereafter.

Typically, this sort of turnaround can be traced right back to the training the collectors are given.  Here are some simple suggestions to reduce staff turnover and make sure you’re getting the most ‘bang for your buck’ when it comes to training and motivating your collection staff.

·              Educate.  Training can’t simply consist of handing your new hire a stack of documents to read and sending them on their way.  An effective collector has to know the laws of your area and the policies and culture of your company.  Take the time to educate them.  It will pay dividends.

·              Foster Communication.  Collections can be a competitive field, and offering rewards for volume is always a good idea.  But you can’t allow your collectors to become solo agents, cut off from each other.  Weekly meetings where communication is encouraged are essential, as your collectors can learn from each other’s successes – and failures.

·              Keep Goals Realistic.  Setting goals for your collectors is a tried-and-true motivational tool, but you have to make these goals individual and realistic.  Tailor goals to the collector’s experience, prior record, and personality.  A little stretching is good, but a goal that is absolutely unreachable doesn’t motivate, it depresses.

·              Talk to Your Collectors.  Getting them to discuss business between themselves is good for education and shared experience, but you should make sure you touch base with your staff and make them feel valued, as well as to review their load and advise them on tactics and where they may be going wrong.

A motivated staff will clear more paper; it’s a simple fact of life.

Collectors Take Their Stand: Seek Sanctions in FDCPA Cases

Many collections companies find themselves spending their time in court responding to boilerplate complaints, only to find that the plaintiff doesn’t actually participate in the litigation yet won’t drop the suit.  Meanwhile, attorney’s fees and court costs continue to build up.  A recent case in California resulted in two debt collectors being awarded more than $13,000 in the form of sanctions against the plaintiff’s counsel.

During the year prior to the sanctions, multiple consumers filed lawsuits of an almost identical nature against various collectors of debt.  The complaints were boilerplate, with allegations associated with reporting activity on the plaintiffs’ credit reports as the basis.  Multiple debt collectors, creditors and debt buyers were named in the suit.  The majority of the cases were dismissed immediately due to the failure of the plaintiff to make a claim or to comply with various rules, in addition to plaintiffs’ counsel not attending discovery meetings. 

One of the dismissed lawsuits made assertions under state laws, the Fair Credit Reporting Act, and the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act.  Other than serving the claims, the plaintiff did not take part in the case, resulting in the dismissal of the case.  On behalf of two of the defendants, Issa Moe, an attorney with Moss & Barnett, P.A., filed several motions that sought an award for the various costs and fees associated with the case. 

The court declined to hold the plaintiff responsible for the costs incurred by the defendants; however, due to the actions of the plaintiff’s counsel, which the court regarded as being “unreasonably and vexatiously” conducted sanctions against the counsel totaling $13, 278.50 were awarded.  While sanctions being granted in a case such as this are rare, it is good news for collection lawyers and  debt collectors subjected to such frivolous litigation to know that they have paths they can pursue to recoup their losses.  

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