Collector - October 2016 - 30
BUSINESSOPERATIONS
The Formula of Five
Asking five questions can help you get to the root cause of a complaint.
By Anne Rosso May
C
onsumer complaints provide
valuable information that can help
improve your business. They may
highlight a flawed policy or a glitch in a
technological application-issues that may
not have been immediately exposed without
this feedback.
Andrew C. Hall, Esq., legal compliance
officer and general counsel for Estate
Information Services LLC, noted that 90
percent of the complaints that come into his
company are rooted in a consumer's basic
misunderstanding of the underlying debt.
"Most of these cases we can resolve over
the phone with the consumer," Hall said.
"The complaint gets tagged in our system, a
supervisor reviews it to determine the nature
of the complaint, and then the collector calls
the consumer to explain what's going on and
to answer that person's question. Often this
whole process starts and is resolved in the
same day."
But some complaints aren't as easily
decoded. Maybe the consumer is threatening
to file a lawsuit, or maybe it's obvious that
the issue is not a simple misunderstanding.
In these cases, the next step is to pinpoint the
root cause of the problem-to figure out how
you can resolve the issue and avoid getting
similar complaints in the future.
One technique that Hall often relies on is
"the Five Whys."
Reportedly first developed in the 1980s by
a Toyota car executive, the Five Whys helps
to pinpoint the root cause of any problem. It
works like this:
QUESTION 1:
WHY DID THE CONSUMER
COMPLAIN?
Sally called the consumer about his debt.
QUESTION 2:
WHY WAS HE UPSET ABOUT THAT?
Sally called him after he'd sent a cease and
desist letter.
QUESTION 3:
WHY DID SALLY DO THAT?
She didn't follow the company's policy on
this issue.
QUESTION 4:
WHY DIDN'T SHE FOLLOW
THE COMPANY'S POLICY?
She was unaware of the policy.
TRACKING SYSTEM: NO COMPLAINT IS TOO SMALL
Logging complaints helps you determine whether your training, technology, policies and procedures are working
as they should. Even if the complaint is not escalated beyond the collector, it should be tracked. If you are getting 50
angry phone calls a month about a particular client, and in each situation your collector is able to calm the consumer,
explain your agency's process and send the person on his way feeling better, chalking the issue up as "not worth
reporting" is a huge failure.
"If you are getting that many calls on a single issue, that tells me that something the client is doing needs to be fixed,"
said Andrew C. Hall, Esq., legal compliance officer and general counsel for Estate Information Services LLC. "All we can
do is collect the information and report it-we can't make the client act. But we do want the client to be aware of any
potential issues. That's why it's important to capture things properly."
30
ACAINTERNATIONAL.ORG
http://www.ACAINTERNATIONAL.ORG
Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Collector - October 2016
President’s Page
Industry News
Best Practices
FYI
Collection Tips
Connect the Dots
Looking Deeper
Head of the Class
Calendar
Honor Roll
The Formula of Five
How to Create Winning Bids and Proposals
A Running Start
ACPAC Election Watch
ACA’s Industry Advancement Program Aids Eleventh Circuit Win for Member Company
Compliance
ACA SearchPoint
Last Word
Collector - October 2016 - Cover1
Collector - October 2016 - Cover2
Collector - October 2016 - 1
Collector - October 2016 - 2
Collector - October 2016 - President’s Page
Collector - October 2016 - Industry News
Collector - October 2016 - 5
Collector - October 2016 - 6
Collector - October 2016 - 7
Collector - October 2016 - Best Practices
Collector - October 2016 - 9
Collector - October 2016 - FYI
Collector - October 2016 - 11
Collector - October 2016 - Collection Tips
Collector - October 2016 - 13
Collector - October 2016 - Connect the Dots
Collector - October 2016 - 15
Collector - October 2016 - 16
Collector - October 2016 - 17
Collector - October 2016 - 18
Collector - October 2016 - 19
Collector - October 2016 - Looking Deeper
Collector - October 2016 - 21
Collector - October 2016 - 22
Collector - October 2016 - 23
Collector - October 2016 - Head of the Class
Collector - October 2016 - 25
Collector - October 2016 - 26
Collector - October 2016 - 27
Collector - October 2016 - Calendar
Collector - October 2016 - Honor Roll
Collector - October 2016 - The Formula of Five
Collector - October 2016 - 31
Collector - October 2016 - How to Create Winning Bids and Proposals
Collector - October 2016 - 33
Collector - October 2016 - 34
Collector - October 2016 - 35
Collector - October 2016 - A Running Start
Collector - October 2016 - 37
Collector - October 2016 - 38
Collector - October 2016 - 39
Collector - October 2016 - ACPAC Election Watch
Collector - October 2016 - 41
Collector - October 2016 - ACA’s Industry Advancement Program Aids Eleventh Circuit Win for Member Company
Collector - October 2016 - 43
Collector - October 2016 - Compliance
Collector - October 2016 - 45
Collector - October 2016 - ACA SearchPoint
Collector - October 2016 - 47
Collector - October 2016 - Last Word
Collector - October 2016 - Cover3
Collector - October 2016 - Cover4
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