For almost 30 years, I’ve visited collection and recovery operations all over the world to demonstrate software. I’m still shocked when I see how often operations use a week as a unit to determine the next time to take action on an account. The next steps in workflow are often set to 7, 14, or 21 days from the current date.
And people wonder why they never get in touch with debtors.
My mom plays bridge every Wednesday morning and goes grocery shopping every Wednesday afternoon. She’s never home on that day of the week. If you plan on collecting from her (and I hope it doesn’t come to that), you’ll need to call on a different day of the week.
This is Collections 101: Don’t use multiples of seven for callbacks if you want to recover debt!
It would be great if you could call a consumer every 6 days, but this number is often unrealistic. If your collector queues are too big for collectors to manage the number of days between calls, your callback on average is too low. On the other hand, if the collectors are running out of work on a regular basis, your average is too high.
Debt collection agencies and in-house collection departments — look at the frequency you’re using to contact your debtors. You might be surprised at the difference your contact frequency can make.
If you think I’m wrong about this, add your comment to this post! I’d love to discuss it with you.
