What can other companies learn from this collection agency?

When you think of a collection agency, what are your initial thoughts? As a consumer, you might have much different views of collection agencies than a business owner that needs to get paid on time. Even if that consumer has never dealt with being in collections, they might have already formed an opinion based on media coverage, nightly news magazines and how others talk about their experience.

As that business owner or other executive in charge of payments and cash flow, you might have your opinions of the debt collection industry as well. One of your beliefs is that it is just part of doing business. You need a collection agency to help your business get certain customers to pay and by doing so, will improve your cash flow.

But what if you could learn valuable lessons about how to run and grow a company from the collection industry? Would you listen?

We have realized for some time that for us to meet certain goals as a company, we have to have several things in place. And as a company in a fast-paced and sometimes stressful industry, the way we operate is important.

Culture.

We’ve spent a lot of time on our culture. It’s an important part of who we are and how we retain talent. For many here, being on the phone is a way of life. Whether you are a collector, in customer service or in a sales capacity, our people spend much of their day on the phone. And the experiences vary. It’s important for us to have a culture where we can offset that phone time with fun experiences.

While we dedicate an entire week to our employees during our annual Employee Week, with games, outings and community service, we also take time during the year to do the same. In this industry, we want and need to have a little fun. We have several outings during the year and equal amounts of opportunities to get involved in various causes.

You also won’t find us ruling with an iron first around here. Our culture involves training our team thoroughly and regularly, nurturing our team members and offering regular feedback on how to improve.

Values.

Ask anyone here and they know our values. In fact, they know our values before they are even offered a position in the company. We believe that the way to harmony between a company, management, clients and its employees is to have certain values in place. For us it’s work ethic, integrity and a positive attitude.

We know, for many in the public, they feel that our industry has no integrity. And they feel that getting the money is the only outcome. But that would be incorrect.

Our job here is to find the best solution to the current problem. That might not be having a consumer pay off an entire balance all at once. That in some cases can be counterproductive and can put someone right back into collections. Creating a solution that everyone can embrace without causing a path of destruction is called integrity. Integrity comes in many other forms as well including making sure we are honest in the workplace, and that we are doing the right thing for everyone. We value honesty at every level of the organization.

Work ethic and a positive attitude we believe go hand in hand. This is not just a job here. We are proud of the fact that we are a place where someone can build a career and feel good about helping others such as the business that hires us and the consumers we work with to create solutions to an outstanding debt.

And we want our team to treat this like a career. If you’re just looking for a paycheck, maybe this isn’t the best place for you to land. But if you are eager to build a career, grow and learn, this is a great place for that to happen. And that’s why work ethic and a positive attitude are so important to our culture. We do hard work and our clients expect us to be positive and stay focused on helping them.

Openness.

Let’s face it, many in this industry over the years have stayed far under the radar. Collection agencies never looked for attention, never wanted it and just did their job for their clients. That has changed and it’s not just American Profit Recovery. Others in the collection industry have also started to open their doors.

We do good work here. We help a business that is struggling to stay on top of cash flow and by doing so, we help a consumer navigate a difficult situation. We have many stories to tell and if we stay silent, others will tell our story for us.

We also have great people here and they as well know they are doing the right thing every time they pick up the phone. Some of are not easy conversations but in the end, we have always tried to help two parties come to an agreement. And, we have tried to educate both business and consumer along the way.

We’ve met the media head on over the years with educational topics and we’ve told our story with social media. We have shared agency life with the world and our team actively participates.

Our philosophy of being open and honest has served us well and has allowed us to take a huge step in educating the public that we’re just real people trying to make a difference.

This industry has had mountains to climb over the years and we recognized that when we opened our doors. Were we disrupters? We’re not sure, but we knew what would make our company different. Culture, a tremendous focus on values and showing the world what we really do.

What makes your company different?