The third cornerstone of successful collections is “management” of your accounts. This is accomplished through a quality control system that makes sense. Industry standard is to transfer your accounts to collection people of lesser experience and talent as they begin to age or are determined to be more difficult to collect. Giving your most difficult collections to the least talented and least experienced personnel is not your best interest. Our system transfers your more difficult accounts to collectors of greater ability, up to and including our management staff. Our managers are always available to assist or even take over the collection requirements of your accounts. In most agencies, the top producers are never allowed off the production floor and thus their experience and ability is never shared with other members the company. Uncommon to the industry, our managers are required to sale, service and collect while performing their managerial responsibilities. This allows our best people to advance without losing the production benefit of their talents. This unique structure creates an unparalleled training environment, while still retaining the highest level of professionalism and experience in the industry. In fact, do not be surprised to hear from one of our company officers, or to find that he or she is somehow involved in the recovery efforts. Our philosophy is that every member of our staff is responsible to you, the customer, in the recovery of your money.
The fourth cornerstone “sacrifice” is the key element of successful service to our customers. The most frequent complaint we hear is that agencies only think in terms of their own financial interest. James, Stevens & Daniels puts the interest of their clients before their own. We only litigate accounts that have a plan for execution of judgment. We do not seek an easy resolution of settling your accounts for less than what is owed you. We provide Customer Profile Searches on your accounts before you extend credit. These are just three of the ways that we put you, the customer, first. We only benefit from our successes; failure is a free service to our clients, and through a common agenda, we epitomize a team philosophy like no other organization.
The second cornerstone of successful collections, “personnel”, is accomplished through the employment of true business professionals. James, Stevens & Daniels seeks out experienced commercial collectors and amplifies their experience through team structure. We believe that proper staffing cannot be accomplished with the revolving door hiring practices of our industry. We attract rare professionals by paying the highest industry commissions and creating a quality work environment. Our environment is one of support, without the micromanagement that tends to drive independent people away. Because our staff consists of individuals with prior business ownership or senior management experience, we are more able to relate and communicate with company decision makers. This rare ability of our personnel allows us to exchange pertinent information crucial in offering advice and solutions that ultimately create payment of your delinquent accounts. Our commitment to personnel provides you the best representation in the industry.
The first cornerstone of successful collections is research, which begins from the very minute a client turns a delinquent account over to James, Stevens & Daniels. Unlike most agencies, where they initially glean through the accounts blindly attempting collections, James, Stevens & Daniels first processes your accounts through civil investigators who gather all known financial information and present this data to our collection staff. Our collectors begin the recovery process knowledgeable of company affiliations, property ownership, historical business practices, credit histories, and published news articles. Our competitors seek to cut costs by researching only a limited number of problematic accounts and inasmuch they fall into the category of penny wise and pound-foolish. The fact that our recovery rate often doubles and sometimes triples that of our competitors’ stands as testament to this fact.
Customers put their lives into their business so when they give up its TOO LATE. The “GIVE UP” point is the point of no return – where customers realize they can not make IT work. Classic timing for this is during holiday times when owners look at their families and recognize their stress is spilling over to them – this can not continue and soon the customer decides to close their doors. Once decided, these companies will liquidate all of their assets (if any exist) and keep those proceeds instead of paying down any of their existing debts. The customer says things like, “Do what you have to do”, “You can get blood from a stone”, “What do you want me to do when we have no money”, etc. Unfortunately this stage means nothing can be done to stimulate the customer’s desire to pay and it’s time to write off the debt. Placing this account for collections with any expectations of payment would be misleading so it is critical to recognize this stage.
Companies who are in this stage are paying ONLY their main suppliers as well as bills which allow them to survive, i.e. Electric bills, Payroll bills, Phone bills (with the internet this bill has begun to move away from survival mode), Lease, Utilities, etc. The survival stage tends to be where customers lose their ability to communicate well and they start to avoid all contact from those clients they owe money because they can not pay. This is common when a dramatic loss occurs, i.e., a major client going bankrupt, lost contracts, novelty products losing their interest, loss of management, mismanagement etc. This stage can be identified on any aging because the open account ages without communication from the customer and without any partial payments – 90+ column is normal. Unfortunately for our clients this is the time to PLACE THE ACCOUNT FOR COLLECTIONS. Waiting now will allow the file to move quickly into stage three- which is bad.
Almost every company in the world has gone through this stage where they were forced to “partially” pay their open invoices on the majority of their accounts payable. This stage happens because of thousands of reasons, i.e. aggressive growth and funds are tied up in managing the growth, terms dictated by their clients who pay slower than net 30 (the big boys abuse the small guy all of the time), mismanagement, etc. This stage can be identified on any aging because the customer is either partial paying on specific invoices or only paying the smaller invoices while larger ones age.
We work with our clients to create a collection process that systematically satisfies your debt recovery needs with maximum profitability at minimal cost. Collection activities begin with a thorough analysis of our clients’ objectives. We also review the collection strategies our clients have used in the past and the unique characteristics of their customers in order to provide the highest quality service to our clients and their customers. Based on this information, we propose tailored solutions for maximum debt recovery with reduced expenses while retaining your customers.
The solutions we develop are designed to address your short-term and long-term needs. We apply rigorous standards of excellence to every aspect of our partnership with clients as we:
Design and initiate collection efforts to resolve debt balances in full and on an immediate basis.
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Superior Collection Activities
services
We work with our clients to create a collection process that systematically satisfies your debt recovery needs with maximum profitability at minimal cost. Collection activities begin with a thorough analysis of our clients’ objectives. We also review the collection strategies our clients have used in the past and the unique characteristics of their customers in order to provide the highest quality service to our clients and their customers. Based on this information, we propose tailored solutions for maximum debt recovery with reduced expenses while retaining your customers.
The solutions we develop are designed to address your short-term and long-term needs. We apply rigorous standards of excellence to every aspect of our partnership with clients as we:
Design and initiate collection efforts to resolve debt balances in full and on an immediate basis.
Enhance the collection process with the help of leading-edge technologies.
Generate detailed reports that summarize both qualitative and quantitative results.
Evaluate each account situation to determine the effectiveness of our methodologies in an ongoing basis.
Monitor our activities internally to ensure compliance.
Recommend additional activities such as skip tracing, attorney referral, and litigation when appropriate.
Account Placement
Accounts may be placed with JSD online or using any size tape, disk, system modem, or hardcopy. JSD captures all information submitted with debt placements. System-to-system transmission specifications are developed to meet all requirements. Accounts are always entered within 24 hours of receipt.