No matter how well you have set up your collections business, sooner or later, inefficiencies can creep in causing incremental operating cost increases. Many times it is caused by departmental quarterly focus; intentional or not, the various departments within your organization can fall back on operating within functional silos. When that happens, operational redundancies occur. Instead of acting independently, the departments must act in an integrated company-wide manner because such redundancies can lead to weakened productivity.
In order to address this, management must understand the full scope of the processes that are used in the collections process. Once they have a better grasp of the operational methods and outputs, they often can provide a solution to improve productivity. Here are some suggestions on how to address these inefficiencies.
Collaboration
To eliminate functional silos, it is important to put two-way communication into place. Regular meetings with department heads in which inventory of processes and procedures is taken will help identify areas where improvements can be made. A greater level of understanding can also help to critically assess common problems and develop innovative solutions.
Training
Company-objective-focused training opportunities across functional departments can provide a means to eliminate redundant behaviors. Training is based upon the assessments and materials gathered from the earlier discussions with the department heads.
Automation
As redundancies and inefficiencies are identified, the benefits of automating oft-repeated tasks can be considered. Many times simple agent-involved tasks can be outsourced to an outside processor who is Consumer Financial Protection Board (CFPB) compliant and provides the services 24 hours a day. One of the keys to success is to focus top talent on process improvement and out of daily, urgent tasks. Augmenting your team with automated functionalities can enable the appropriate level of focus while still maintaining daily operations.
Are you considering automating some of your collection processes? REPAY can help. We have a wide range of payment processing solutions.