Collecting debt from customers is a challenging task that requires persistence and strong negotiation skills. Tracking associates’ performances and their ability to get customers to repay their debt is critical. One telecommunications giant, however, struggled to measure the effectiveness of its associates’ collection efforts.

The telecommunications company needed to streamline its collection strategy and provide associates with more information for helping customers develop a repayment plan. The company turned to us for help.

We worked with the client to establish a standardized system for tracking associate performances. This included implementing operational measurements such as a customer satisfaction score, transfer rate, and first contact resolution rate, as well as promises taken (i.e., number of customer promises to repay the debt) and promises kept.

Associates were also coached on helping customers develop a plan for repaying their debt and tracking the customer’s progress in meeting those goals. In addition, our consultants coached leaders on motivating associates and providing recognition for good performance.

The new strategies began to pay off. The percentage of customers who kept their promise to repay their debt grew from 72.4% to 81.6% in one year. In addition, the “Wipe Out” team, a group of associates who focused on negotiating with B2B customers on payment plans, was able to obtain nearly $10 million in repaid debt within one year.

Our recommendations and strategies enabled the telecommunications company to improve its measurement capabilities, more accurately gauge associates’ performance levels, and increase the amount of repaid debt.