Call Monitoring and Collector Re-training Sessions
We believe the key to improving our collection performance and ensure zero compliance gaps, is to lift the collection skill level of our collectors through on the job coaching and feedback, regular call monitoring and account reviews and collector re-training sessions.
As outlined in the above mentioned checklist, these tasks will now form part of a daily, weekly schedule for the Aeon supervisor and adherence will be monitored by me.
The following action items will be executed:
• Call Monitoring will now form a daily part of the Supervisor’s responsibilities and one hour in the day will be allocated to this.
• A total of 5 calls per collector per week as a minimum will need to be monitored, scored and evaluated by the Supervisor and then played back to the collector to give coaching and feedback on areas for improvement
• Additionally the supervisor will start to build a library of best practice calls where they maintain good calls for training and coaching purposes.
• In addition to the new hire classroom training that will be conducted for the new Aeon recruits, the Supervisor will conduct refresher training of Aeon collectors every week for a one hour session during November to reinforce collector responsibilities, daily productivity targets, Aeon process requirements, negotiation skill training and play back of calls in a group session to share feedback and discuss best practices.
Productivity Improvement
One of the critical components to improving our collection performance and hitting targets in September and on-going months will involve lifting productivity levels of our collectors and ensuring the average call rate for the month shows a drastic improvement.
We will be driving the following actions:
• Setting a daily target of a minimum of 150 calls per Aeon collector and a minimum of 100 accounts worked per day.
• Surprise incentives will be given to reward achievement on productivity targets or to the collector with the best productivity statistics for a given day or week.
• The Supervisor will be expected to discuss the productivity statistics with each collector for the previous day, at the start of each day.
• Additional follow up will be required on calls made and number of accounts actioned within the queue during the day to ensure the collectors are made aware if they are falling behind on their call targets.
• The supervisor will be expected to conduct a daily review at the end of the day to ensure that all accounts assigned to the collectors for the day have been worked and there is no account in risk of violating the gap period of 5 days.
• Next week will implement an incentive competition across the Aeon portfolios which provides instant reward to the collector at the end of each day depending on the level of performance and productivity. The two criteria for participating in the competition and being eligible to win the daily prize money are: 1) Working more than 100 accounts in a day 2) Collecting a targeted gross dollar value of NEW PTPS on a daily basis. The point of this competition is to drive up the performance over the last few days of this month and the first few days of next month, which is the time period when we can expect most debtors to have some funds to pay out (salary period). Our focus is to push collectors to find more debtors and get new promises rather than just calling and confirming existing promises.
Portfolio Management
Our ability to manage the portfolio of accounts more skilfully and assign the accounts to the right collectors will help us to enhance our overall collection performance. It will be critical for us to understand at all times as to which debt status codes the Aeon accounts are lying in so we can assign the appropriate collection treatment to gain a superior result.
As such we will implement the following actions this month:
• Bi- weekly detailed analysis to be conducted of the Aeon portfolio to assess the effectiveness of each collector in working their own portfolios.
• These portfolio summaries will be shared with the collectors and feedback will be given on the pools of accounts that need extra focus. For example accounts where collectors have established contact with debtor and are in negotiation will be given emphasis to convert the “negotiate” to a “ptp” or “settlement” status code.
• Re-shuffling of accounts will be done on a fortnightly basis in order to try alternate collector approaches on working the accounts to see if a better result can be obtained by changing the collector working the account.
• Accounts will be placed strategically- broken promises and accounts with last payment updates will be given to the strongest collectors as they will be able to negotiate for a better outcome on the account.
• Collectors who have not worked their accounts effectively as evidenced by their productivity scores and portfolio summary reviews may risk losing accounts to other top performing collectors.
Field Processes
Currently less than 5% of our accounts are in a field call status but we have close to 40% of our portfolio where we are yet to establish a contact with the debtor but are still calling phone numbers in the hope of being able to establish contact. One of the avenues to lifting our collection performance lies in our ability to convert some of these accounts which are in an “Active work in progress “status to a located / contact status code. This requires some additional effort in our field visit department.
As such we will be implementing the following actions:
• Review of the current outstanding 5% of accounts under field collection to assess action taken and turnaround times to report back findings
• Implementation of a 5 day- around time for FCRs to report back first findings to be updated on the system for collector to review and request a re-visit if required.
• Implement an incentive scheme for FCRs who are able to either connect the debtor to the collector at the point of contact on field or who are able to bring back a correct contact number where the collector is able to establish confirmed contact with debtor.
• Review of all accounts under AWIP status by Supervisor to establish which accounts need to be sent for immediate field review due to inability to contact debtor at the given numbers
• As mentioned above and as identified by Aeon, additional field visits are necessary on the Aeon portfolio. We realise that the performance has and will continue to be impacted.
• We currently have dedicated field resources for Aeon work but in order to boost the number of field visits taking place and ensure we have the capability to conduct repeat visits on the case to successfully locate and contact the debtor we will be looking to hire an additional field collection resource.
Operational
We recognise that our biggest challenge and area for improvement will be Leadership and Senior Management. They key to operational and performance success is dependent on Leadership and Local Senior Management. As our management oversight improves so too will our collections. We have been extremely focused and committed to Aeon. We take on board all suggestions and feedback and work quickly on implementing effective solutions to resolve any issues that are raised. We know we can continue to improve and do better. We still have many things to implement and improve on. There is only UPSIDE. for Aeon with your relationship with GlofinX. Our performance continues to improve and we are performing now better than some other Agencies on Aeon’s Panel. The performance all the OA’s has improved due to healthy competition.