Nice Guy Debt Collection Highlighted in Financial Times

The Financial Times, a leading international business publication, today is featuring an article on the success of a European debt collection agency that uses a more consultative approach with debtors to recover funds for its clients.

Wroclaw, Poland-based Kruk, the ARM market leader in its home country as well as Romania, began collecting in earnest in 1999. It has since grown to 18 collection sites with some 850 employees. During the company’s early growth period, it attracted the attention of outside capital, which accelerated the growth further.

But in 2006, the company conducted an extensive market research project and determined that market conditions were ripe for a change in collection strategy. It would now focus on working out payment plans with debtors. It even launched its own marketing campaign to encourage debtors to proactively reach out to Kruk for repayment.

The efforts not only engendered public goodwill toward the company (it appeared in a plotline on a major Polish soap opera), but it led to improved performance, culminating in its listing on the Warsaw Stock Exchange last year.

Read the entire story on the Financial Times web site (registration required).

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