With rapidly changing technology, regulations, and demographics, the collections industry faces a variety of challenges. In today’s highly mobile society, debtors are harder to find than ever. Although there is a plethora of information available on individual debtors, it can be nearly impossible to sort through all of them effectively.
Thomson Reuters recently surveyed its collections customers to identify the most pressing collections challenges they are currently facing. The first four reflect their mutual frustration at finding good and reliable information about debtors.
Before using CLEAR for jump tracking, which of the following challenges did your organization face?
1. Lack of up-to-date debtor contact information
Why is this a challenge?
In the digital age there is rarely a lack of available information about an individual, but finding a debtor’s most up-to-date and accurate contact information can often pose a major problem.
After all, successful collections are based on the possibility of contacting the debtor. Without up-to-date information for the debtor, it is almost impossible to reach them – and therefore impossible to collect the debt.
what causes it
A company may lack up-to-date contact details of a debtor for various reasons: the debtor moves regularly; the contact information used for the original credit may be out of date; the debtor may live with a third party who is the main owner or tenant of the property; or perhaps there is simply an incorrect entry for the debtor in one or more of the available databases.
The list goes on and gets longer as you look at them newest generation of debtors. However, in the future, technology will only provide more individual information instead of restricting it. So even if “too much” information is a problem, reducing the amount of available entries on a debtor will not solve it.
Instead, a lack of information verification is really at the root of this problem – and consequently the solution lies in the establishment of one or more information authentication methods, such as
2. Difficulties in identifying and contacting debtors
Why is this a challenge?
It should be obvious why not having enough information to identify and contact debtors is a problem. This problem also poses a serious hurdle to contacting debtors, which in turn prevents successful recovery.
But this challenge can feel particularly frustrating as the lack of information is more than just a waste of time and resources; It often prevents any action from being taken on an account at all.
what causes it
In some cases, an organization may not have enough information to successfully identify or contact a debtor because the public records simply do not contain enough information about the individual. However, given the amount of data collected and stored in public records, this is likely to rarely be the case.
Instead, the facts about a debtor are mostly known, but organizations face difficulties in identifying and communicating because the information is not where one would expect it to be. This can happen for a variety of reasons, and getting around the problem often requires a broader and more comprehensive look at public records, e.g. B. Checking a debtor’s third-party connections.
3. Difficulty accessing the most valuable information
Why is this a challenge?
For some debtors, the information most likely to lead to a successful collection isn’t as basic as a phone number or address. This can be data about their place of work or known employees.
Unfortunately, this information is not nearly as accessible as the simpler records. This, in turn, can lead to the problem of wasting extra time trying to find and access that data, or attempting a less effective recovery without it.
what causes it
The root of the problem lies in the raw complexity of public databases and the ability to access the information. It may not be possible to access public records from any platform or for any purpose. The solution is to either train your company to access these databases – which can take not only a lot of time but also some associated financial costs – or pay someone else who already has the infrastructure to do it Get the information you need quickly and easily.
4. It takes too long to find debtors if you search through all the data
Why is this a challenge?
Again, this is a problem of “too much” information. But in addition to determining whether the contact information is the most up-to-date, this problem includes the additional time spent determining which information is most appropriate to achieve the goal.
Since the adage “time is money” certainly applies in collections scenarios, it’s unwise for businesses to spend too much time on a single account. However, it is also important to ensure that the information collected from you is the type of information that will lead to recovery. This is especially true for accounts with an overabundance of available data.
what causes it
In short, this is caused by too much information without proper organization. All information about a particular debtor should be evaluated to ensure the most effective collection possible. On the other hand, there is so much data available about individuals today that it is often not possible to manually search through all the records.
As with Challenge #3, unless your organization is able and willing to create a cost and time efficient solution, the best answer to this challenge is to find a public records platform that will do the organizational heavy lifting for you completed.
Considering that accessing and managing data is at the root of all of these four problems, the key to solving all problems may simply be using a platform that specializes in these specific functions.
Thomson Reuters CLEAR is such a platform. As will be discussed in detail in the next issue, CLEAR comprehensively addresses all of these biggest debt collection challenges by accessing numerous public databases, with information updated in real-time and organized in a clean, easy-to-understand interface.
How Thomson Reuters can help
When your information is inaccurate or outdated, it either takes too long to find the right people, or you waste time and resources trying to find the right data. Thomson Reuters CLEAR for skip tracing provides access to transparent sources with easy access to scope and update frequencies. Now you can be sure you’re accessing the most up-to-date and comprehensive data.
- Access important proprietary and public records in an intuitive environment
- Enable batch notifications to conduct a search for large numbers of people and companies
- Receive real-time recordings such as arrests, watch lists and social media
- Analyze search results instantly to reduce investigation time and uncover hidden unknowns
Request your FREE People or Business Search
Thomson Reuters is not a consumer reporting agency and none of its services or the data contained herein constitutes a “consumer report,” as that term is defined in the Federal Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA), 15 USC sec. 1681 et seq. The information provided to you may not be used as a factor in determining consumer debt collection, determining a consumer’s eligibility for credit, insurance, employment, government benefits, or housing, or for any other permitted purpose under the FCRA. By accessing any of our services, you agree not to use the service or data for any purpose authorized under the FCRA or in relation to taking an adverse action with respect to a consumer request.
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