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Receivables Performance Management: What to Look for in a Debt Collection Agency

When you’re running a business, dealing with delinquent accounts generally isn’t something you’re excited to do. After all, you got into business to generate a profit while making a difference in customers’ lives -- not fight for the money you’re owed. This is why hiring a debt collection agency is a wise move for many businesses. However, not all collection agencies are equal. Here is what to look for in a top-of-the-line agency, according to industry-leading Receivables Performance Management.

First, the right agency will look at your business as a valued client, not a mere profit center. As a result, the agency will provide you with high-quality business intelligence. In other words, the agency will analyze your whole receivables process, pinpoint appropriate strategies for addressing it, and make suggestions to maximize and improve your receivables performance. This is something that the majority of collection agencies simply do not do.

When performing the abovementioned process, the agency you choose should take time to listen to how you currently handle your delinquent accounts externally and internally. After all, this is the only way to accurately determine if it can fill any gaps in your existing process. If gaps can be filled, the right agency will explain how it could accomplish this and how you could benefit financially from its efforts. Meanwhile, if the agency cannot fill your gaps, it should still serve as a helpful consulting resource, providing you with analysis and tips to meet your current needs.

Debt collection is a complex area from a financial, legal, and business standpoint, according to Receivables Performance Management. However, industry experts can easily help you to overcome the challenges associated with it so that you can remain strong both financially and reputation wise in the days, months, years, and even decades to come.

Receivables Performance Management: Hallmarks of a Top Debt Collection Partner

When your customers neglect to pay for the products or services you have provided, you have no choice but to rely on the help of a business partner in the debt collection industry. However, this isn’t a simple, straightforward transaction. Rather, it comes with a large amount of responsibility on both your and the debt collection agency’s parts. For this reason, choosing the right partner is paramount. Below are the hallmarks of a top-notch debt collection partner, according to the experts at Receivables Performance Management.

Experience Working with Your Particular Industry

Each industry uses its own laws, rules, terminology, and systems. For instance, collecting a health care bill requires you to follow different regulations and standards than you would when collecting utility debt.

This is why the debt collection agency you choose needs to have proven expertise working with your unique industry. Receivables Performance Management, for example, works with clients in a wide range of industries, ranging from telecommunications to retail, utilities, banking, health care, commercial, and even local and state government.

Commitment to Its Clients

One of the most important qualities of a debt collection agency is its demonstrated commitment to putting your needs first. This includes a willingness to keep its promises to you and to use the best human resources and technology available to serve you in the best way possible while also treating your customers fairly and respectfully.

Innovation

A leading debt collection partner also uses top-of-the-line operational processes to get the job done correctly on your behalf. Receivables Performance Management, for example, created its own source code, which makes it easier for the company to build creativity and innovation into its new and existing processes and collection techniques. This approach ultimately benefits you, the client.

With the guidance of the right debt collection partner, you can be well on your way to strengthening your bottom line while simultaneously keeping your reputation strong.

Receivables Performance Management: Reasons to Use a Debt Collection Agency

To keep your venture afloat, you need to collect payments for your services and/or products. Unfortunately, not every customer is reliable. Of course, you probably have more urgent demands than calling these customers or writing letters to them to collect their delinquent debts. That’s where a debt collection partner comes in, according to the industry experts at Receivables Performance Management. Here is a rundown of the main advantages of using third-party collection agencies to help your company to recover its unpaid debts.

The biggest reason to use a debt collection agency is that this will increase your chances of successfully recovering delinquent debts. The older a certain debt becomes, the more difficult it is to recover it. However, the agents at a debt collection agency are trained in the most effective techniques for motivating debtors to finally make payments. In many situations, debtors will arrange to make payments with a collection agency simply to avoid damaging their credit.

Yet another reason to rely on a debt collection agency is that it these agencies are flexible in how they take on your delinquent debts and work with your customers to secure payment. As a result, you can easily find a collection agency whose collection program meshes with your own business model. A quality agency will always prioritize your needs, making the strengthening of your bottom line its top goal.

Finally, debt collection agencies, such as Receivables Performance Management, will make sure that you do not violate your customers’ rights. After all, many state and federal laws govern debt collection, and a well-informed consumer will be quick to file a lawsuit against you if you infringe on his or her rights. Enlisting the help of a third-party collector will easily eliminate the legal risk involved with trying to collect past-due debts by yourself.

Receivables Performance Management: Why You Need a Debt Collection Partner

Debt collection agencies are known to recover tens of billions of dollars’ worth of customer debt in a single year. That’s a lot of money that businesses like yours would have to write off otherwise. In light of this, it only makes sense to get in touch with a debt collection agency if you have a number of customer payments you are having trouble securing. Below are some of the top reasons to use a third-party collection agency this year, according to leading collection agency Receivables Performance Management.

First, debt collectors are often in a position to collect delinquent debts when you cannot do so. Research shows that the majority of consumer debt collected within 30 days of its origination is collected by the original creditor. However, as soon as the debt is delinquent, debt collectors have a major advantage. This is because debt collection agents are generally more assertive and consistent.

Second, debt collection agencies save you the time and energy you would otherwise have to dedicate to sending out letters or making telephone calls to collect past-due payments. The fact that the majority of consumers now have caller ID makes collecting debts even trickier, as naturally, many delinquent consumers will simply ignore your calls.

Another advantage of using a debt collection agency is it makes a record of each communication it has with a debtor. Therefore, if you want to file a lawsuit against a debtor down the road, the agency’s comprehensive documentation will demonstrate to the civil court that you have tried hard to recover the outstanding debt.

In addition, if you claim bad debts as tax deductions, you will need to include the collection agency’s documentation in your tax files. If the IRS conducts an audit, it will want proof that you have exhausted every possible option prior to writing off these debts and claiming them as deductions. Clearly, having a collection agency on your side will benefit you both financially and legally in the long run.