Alex: Hey everybody it's Alex and Spencer again with Debt Collection 101, on Arbeit U. Thanks for joining us
Spencer: Thank you for coming back
Alex: Yep so what are we
Spencer: We've got an interesting topic today, very interesting topic
Alex: We're talking about collection agency culture. Spencer: Yes
Alex: I think this is the Spencer: The key
Alex: Yeah and its kinda, its all the previous videos I feel like we have done Spencer: Have touched on this
Alex: Have touched on a piece of this. Spencer: Very good point Alex
Alex: So like this is almost going to be a summary of all that put together and how it affects you know the culture overall
culture of your agency but Spencer: Let's start with Alex: Yeah well last week we had
Spencer: Last week on Arbeit U Alex: Last week on Arbeit U we had Kim and Brian. Kim is the president
of the North Carolina collectors association and she has an agency in
North Carolina and she's talking about motivating collectors and I think one of
the things that's best about her agency is the culture that they have there and
part of that comes from the motivation style Spencer: Yeah if you watched the video
and even if you didn't you should, she does a lot of cool things
internally in her office that like get her employees excited Alex: Yeah before we get
ahead of ourselves let's start let's go back a little bit to what is, what is
business culture, what is business culture? So why don't you let everybody know what you think business culture is
Spencer: What I think business culture is. What I would define it as is, I'm sure there's an actual definition but what I would
define as business culture is like the way you feel when you walk into a place
really if you walk into Arbeit Software you will get a certain feeling
right versus if you walk in like M&T Bank, you know what I mean
Alex: Yeah I agree so business culture essentially is like the overall environment how
people interact with each other Spencer: Yeah How people interact with eachother. Did you Google this?
Alex: No with the tone that you have with everybody.
Spencer: You sure? Alex: Yeah Spencer: You didn't go home and Google what is company culture
Alex: Yeah just so you know it's all up here
Spencer: Okay Alex: So yeah that's what business culture is and I think a lot of people a
lot of you don't realize that you actually need to work on business
culture Spencer: Yeah it doesn't just come Alex: I think because in a lot of smaller companies they don't care about
it they don't spend any time - they don't have the resources maybe or you know
Spencer: So if you don't work on it what usually results is a bad culture. Alex: Yes, yeah
Spencer: If you're not focused on it odds are good it's a bad culture
Alex: So with that being said for a collection agency in particular a bad culture can be
extremely detrimental because the culture is it's not only your internal
interactions with each other but that's Spencer: It's how you set a standard as to
what's okay Alex: Yeah exactly Spencer: It's like what you allow your employees to do
Alex: Right, so if your internal culture is toxic you can Spencer: That translates right through on the phone
Alex: Yeah so what's I guess are some tips that we can give. I mean let go back a step
here before we get to the tip so bad culture leads to compliance issues
Spencer: Always, hands down Alex: I mean if you're gonna have if you're in a toxic environment
people are aggravated and constantly whatever demoralizing each other or
demeaning they're gonna do the same with the consumers because if you
do that to them if you're the boss and you're doing it to them creating that
culture they're gonna do it to the consumers because they feel like they
can because you do its like accepted. So yeah I guess so what are
some big things that an agency can say I want to work on my culture, what can we work on?
Spencer: So there's two piece of advice I have. The number one is don't be
afraid to terminate bad employees right, like one bad apple does spoil the bunch
Alex: Right and bad from not in a sense of production. Spencer: No bad in the sense of
like there's people who are just negative and miserable and bullies
and they just they create a toxic environment Alex: And I think a lot, I've heard
this before in the collection agencies and they feel like if you're the top
collector you can do whatever you want and that is even if your top
collector, because that, if lets say your top collector is a bad apple
they're constantly negative, degrading blah blah blah and you have 20 other collectors
Spencer: Yeah you're up if you get them away your 20 other collector's rise
Alex: Those 19 other collectors, while he's there, might be collecting 20% less
than they actually could be because they're in terrible moods all the time
I mean their not motivated or maybe those 19 other collectors are generating
five complaints that they wouldn't have if this culture was different you know
so you got to think about the big picture not just oh they're my best
collector I'm just gonna take everything from them because I think that happens
especially the smaller agencies but so yeah that would be top tip
get ride of bad apples don't be afraid to even if they're a bad collector because
overall it's gonna equal out in the long run because your other collectors.
Spencer: You're better off getting rid of it. Yeah you can't let that spread Alex: Because it will, its like
they have this toxic aura of bad gg. Spencer Bad gg, I knew you were gonna pull out the gg
Alex: That spreads across the office so another tip that I think is good is from
the top down, culture starts from the top down, right, so it starts with the owner of the
company and it goes down to management and down to employees and so on if
you're a huge agency but a lot of the small businesses I mean there's an owner
and then employees and the owners working in the industry working in the business so
culture starts with them and how the owner or upper management interacts with
employees on a daily basis or interacts with customers or consumers
the employees are going to mimic that. They're gonna, you know if somebody's
constantly motivating in an upbeat mood around and that's like their you know
their supervisor you're gonna follow in those footsteps to an extent so like
management and owners need to be you know having this charge of top down culture.
They need to they need to definitely be always, always on the, you know, on the
Spencer: They set the tone Alex: Yep, they need to be on their feet on their
toe so because if they're not and it's not fair you to an extent in
some cases because it's like you can't have a bad day as an manager or
as an owner because then its gonna just ripple effect down so yeah we got a deal
with it but that's what you signed up for
yeah so what would be another tip
Spencer: So Kim and Brian touched on this and once again
if you didn't see it go watch it. They talked, so their benefit or
reward program is a lot different than most agencies right. They reward
for more than just dollars collected Alex: Yes Spencer: They reward for people who generate the
least amount of complaints, they reward for people who are the most
compliant they don't just have it's like number of phone calls made it's not just
like strict like you collected the most money Alex: Right because if you're only
rewarding people who collect or bring the most dollars at the end of the day Spencer: You're gonna create that culture
Alex: Yes, you're gonna have this aggressive Spencer: I need to do
whatever it takes to collect that money Alex: It's funny this is something then that I
didn't bring up in that last video when they were talking about this but the
CFPB actually looks for that in the bonus structure of an agency when
they're auditing agencies they look at the bonus structure and
they want to see agencies that don't reward only for dollars collected
they want to see rewarding for, no complaints, rewarding for compliance,
rewarding for saying the mini Miranda every single phone call, rewarded for things
like that so and if you don't believe us we will link that article below of the
CFPB talking about that so yeah check that out but yeah
rewarding for other things then dollars brought in
so I think that's a that's another top tip Spencer: Another top tip
Alex: Another top tip another one that I think is important is just overall like
disciplinary action I think it's common for an experienced and smaller
businesses to just go in with like this iron fist and to be ruthless to employees
just because maybe they say oh I never done that I would do this as an
emplopyee, blah blah blah blah and then they get Spencer: Yeah ruling with fear is not the way you
want to do it. Alex: Yeah I don't think it is at least and people just if you do that you're
just yelling if you just go in the middle of
the floor and scream at somebody. Spencer: Berate somebody who does something wrong.
Alex: Yeah thats just the whole entire atmosphere the office now goes like they just like you
know everyone shrinks up and it's like I wanna you know Spencer: I don't want
to deal with that Alex: Im never gonna approach them I don't want to you know I don't want to
work for them Spencer: Yeah so remember like the guy in North Carolina, how he
starts each day Alex: Yes, yeah at the North Carolina event we went to last year they
talked, one of the, the seminars, whatever you want to call it was on on this
topic pretty much and every day the owner, this goes with the top down I
guess, every day the owner of the company around shakes peoples hands
"hey how you doing" Spencer: Always in a good mood Alex: He knows everyones first name, it's a big agency
so it's huge, hundreds of people so knowing everybody, showing that you care
talking about things, being involved you know how little things, like Kim said
last week, making eye contact, saying you know hey how's your kids stuff like that
a big agency means a lot yeah definitely improves their culture so but back to
like the discipline thing yeah I think being more constructive criticism is
better to create a positive culture because again everything that however
you treat your employees I think is how the employees Spencer: Address it as a way
this is how we get better Alex: Yeah because yeah Spencer: Not, here's how you suck Alex: Exactly because it's
like the same thing with the you're gonna, if you don't if you don't treat
your employees that way the employees aren't going to do that their consumers
they're gonna yell to consumers pay their bill rather than say here in this
the problem lets fix it. Spencer: And you're likely to make an employee mad and what do you think
is gonna happen when that employee gets a phone call and they're angry, they're
mad, you've driven them crazy to the point where they're just so mad at
you and they want their revenge. What do you think is gonna happen when they answer the phone?
Alex: They're gonna be they're gonna be mad and angry with the consumer and they will
probably get a complaint because at the end of the day of I think if you have a
good experience with the consumer you know it's you're less likely to complain
over all. If they're not like feeling salted or degraded or anything
like that so yeah but most importantly I think after the, so those are our tips
right there, we have; get rid of bad apples, Spencer: Discipline Alex: Discipline, doing it
the proper way Spencer: Yeah rewarding, benefits Alex: Yeah rewarding things other
than just money you know brought in, and then its culture starts from the
top down. Ownership needs to, you can't have a bad day Spencer: and watch Debt Collection 101
Alex: And watch Debt Collection 101 Specner: That'll definitely help with their company culture Alex: But we want to hear what you do because
I'm sure there's, there's no right there's no like these are the
five tips to have Spencer: These are the only things you can do, you can't do anything else.
Alex: I think it's the best thing to do is to take in everything that you can, so we want to
hear from everybody watching what you do to improve culture at your agency. Leave
comments below, send us an email. Spencer: We do read them Alex: Yes we do, we reply to them all
of them um there's like three so its not hard. Spencer: Yeah we
reply to all three of them Alex: Yeah on YouTube but on Facebook if you're
watching this on Facebook comment there if it's on youtube comment
there, LinkedIn comment there and we would love to hear your feedback and
what you do to improve your culture your agency Spencer: Thanks so much we'll see ya next week
Alex: Yep, thanks, see ya!
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