Keeping Your Collections Floor Motivated – 5 Tried and True Strategies
The ARM industry’s reputation for high turnover is understandable, to say the least. Customer service is a draining environment, to begin with. Factor in the highly emotional responses from consumers, plus heightened pressure to avoid saying the wrong thing and provoking a lawsuit – it’s no wonder so much energy is placed on hiring, retaining and training the right employees.
Being in the trenches with your employees, talking to them and making them feel appreciated and heard can make a big difference, and does not go unnoticed. Studies have shown that when employees feel they are paid attention to, they perform better. So, if you’re looking for ideas on how to motivate your agents, keep reading!
- Put It On Display
Displaying KPIs in front of the entire office might sound like a way to single people out, but it can actually be tremendously motivating. We recommend you invest in a big TV screen that shows calls made, accounts worked, or other data you use to measure performance. Make it clear that you are paying attention to the numbers and praise the top performers.
And while we’re on the subject – using total amounts collected as a goal is simple, but it does not necessarily always work as the only KPI. If that is the only number they see, they may get disheartened and feel like they’re in a hopeless grind. By throwing in different KPIs, even skiptracing numbers, collectors can feel equally rewarded and it can smooth out other slow processes in your agency.
- Collector Appreciation Week
We’ve spoken to many agencies who do this and see enormous success. They have themed dress-up days, bring in lunch, conduct giveaways – whatever it takes to make sure their agents know they are appreciated.
- Games
One example we heard from Kross, Lieberman and Stone was Collection Clue. They created rooms on the Clue board, using cubicles the collectors were in. Then, they created spaces on the ground like a game board. In order to participate, an agent had to have paid in full. That determined how many spaces an agent could go towards a room to guess on the who, what and where. Collectors chipped in some of the ideas about some crimes people did around the office that aggravated them. Those suggestions were used to pick the crimes. For example, “late to work” or “making coffee when the phone was ringing” or others that were practical for the business.
Another game idea is a scavenger hunt, where agents get 5 skips paid in full to achieve that task.
- Taking Time Out
Experts say that regular breaks can help improve concentration, quiet the noise and refuel in a healthy way. One organizational management expert says creating physical and mental space from our work can have a massive effect on our performance. Allow your collectors to take a step back from their desk and go outside, to a break room, or even socialize with their coworkers.
- Generate Inbound Calls
You’re paying your collectors to collect, which is when they’re most valuable, not to do menial soul-crushing tasks that waste everyone’s time and make them feel like cogs grinding in a rusty machine. Use a dialer (hosted dialer) to keep the calls flowing in and your collectors on the phone, even if only to break up the monotony of the day.
Run a campaign on accounts that haven’t been worked in a while, even if slowly in the background. These can end up getting payments you otherwise would have missed, and an inbound call is like a lobster on a silver platter to a collector.
These are simple ways to motivate your agents that, in many cases, will cost you nothing. The key is to break up the day in such a way that collectors do not become complacent, and can instead stay on their toes (in a good way!)
This article courtesy of Arbeit Software and written by Emily Faracca.
Arbeit Software is a team of nerds who create the most efficient and productive cloud-based contact software for businesses of any size. We were founded by former collection agency owners who built their own broadcast dialer that is more powerful and easier to use than anything on the market. In addition, our highly customizable VoIP office phone system will modernize the way your business communicates with the world. Our software won’t drop calls, never lags and is designed to maximize calls per minute, operating on our own tier-1 carriers.
