Ask the Experts: Collectors Working from Home

Ask the Experts is an interactive section where readers can ask direct questions to the experts at Kaulkin Ginsberg, the leading strategic advisors to the ARM industry — and a sister company of insideARM.com — as well as other seasoned industry executives.

Question: I own a consumer, third-party collection agency in the Midwest and I have been receiving requests from my tenured collectors, who have been with me for more than 2 years, to work from home a few days a week. I am curious if you have seen any agencies setting up remote capabilities for collectors, how successful has it been, and how clients react.

I look forward to your response.

Chris, Kentucky

Answer: (From Michael Lamm, Associate at Kaulkin Ginsberg)

Chris, thanks for the question. You are not alone; we are definitely seeing this request pop up more and more, especially after a very difficult year. With liquidations down, there have been fewer commissions to collectors, and this has put a strain on their personal finances. Many of your career collectors – staffers who have been with you for longer than one or two years – have become burned out from long commutes. They may be watching the gas expenses eating way at their paychecks and want to be closer to the family. Working at home gives them that opportunity.

Work-at-home programs are not yet common. So far, it is rare to find a consumer agency that has rolled out a formalized work-at-home model, but we have seen a few agencies make exceptions for certain collectors. Normally, these are collectors who drive performance on specific client streams and may work from home a few days a week. Large firms that have ARM divisions, such as West Corporation (www.west.com) and Convergys (www.convergys.com), have work-at-home capabilities, but they are mainly offered to employees on the customer service side of their businesses.

How it works. Generally, the collector is set up with remote capability from a home computer and given designated phone equipment (Voice over IP phone, headset, etc.) to utilize. Everything the collector does can still be monitored as if the individual was sitting in the call center. Before setting up a collector remotely, the agency may get approval from the recovery manager. The recovery manager would have an opportunity to evaluate the person by reviewing a resume, interviewing him, or reviewing individual performance stats before allowing the agency to permit the collector to work any accounts from home. Clients tend to be ok with it, as long as performance does not suffer as a result.

Working from home is not for everyone, which is why your supervisors who interact with collector need to determine, based on the person and his or her home environment, whether this will work or not. If the person is a good candidate to work from home, he or she will be more productive at the end of day, and by allowing him or her to work from home, you are building a long-term, trusting relationship; it is a win-win. Agencies that have tested it out tell me, their work-at-home collectors have become more productive – they take fewer breaks, and without social interaction with the other agents, they can focus on getting the job done.

Issues to address: The main reason many agencies have not rolled out a work-at-home model is that there are potential FDCPA, data security, and performance control issues that exist; however, we have seen successful work-at-home programs in the commercial collections arena. Commercial collection agencies do not operate under FDCPA rules and the claims they are collecting on tend to be high average balances which require a more sophisticated collection effort, making it more conducive to a work-at-home model.

Will work at home get off the ground? With all of the recent legislation at the state and federal level impacting the ARM industry, I am hard pressed to think that we will see many formal work-at-home programs in consumer collections rolled out anytime soon. However, good collectors are not easy to find and then retain. When you find them, you don’t want to lose them, which is why I can see a movement of more consumer agencies allowing selected, pre-qualified collectors to work from home over the next five years.

If anyone has experimented with work-at-home collectors (consumer or commercial), I would welcome your comments.

Got a question or a comment? Contact us at editor@insidearm.com!

Michael Lamm advises owners on their growth and exit strategies for Kaulkin Ginsberg’s Strategic Advisory team. Michael can be reached directly at 240-499-3808 or by email. You can also read his blogs, follow him on Twitter, or network with Michael from his social media page on insideARM.com).