Nice Guy Debt Collection Becomes Broad Theme for the Week

Patrick Lunsford

A lot of debt collection agencies use a softer, consultative approach to recovery, often to great success. That strategy was on display in the media this week as several large ARM firms were highlighted for their nice but productive collection techniques.

Monday, insideARM published an interview with Access Receivables President Tom Gillespie. Access had recently made available quantifiable statistics on a recent program implemented late last year called “Nice People Collect More.”

Access has seen its payment rate go up more than 40 percent since changing its collection strategy, with no complaints from consumers. The article was very popular, even getting picked up by The Huffington Post, and referenced by at least a dozen other online publications.

But that wasn’t the only story on nice collections in the week. Also on Monday, The Sarasota Herald-Tribune ran a piece on ARM leader Harvey Vengroff, founder of Vengroff, Williams & Associates (now VWA Capgemini after a 2011 merger). Titled, “Debt collecting with a heart,” the article focuses on Vengroff’s recent investment in a small debt mediation firm run by Alex Nathan that is helping Florida residents stay in their homes and pay down their debt using a friendly and consultative approach with consumers.

Like with Access Receivables, Vengroff quantifies the bottom line impact this approach can have on a firm. The story notes that “if someone owes $100,000 in credit card bills, Nathan and Vengroff can earn as much as $10,000 over a two-year period by reducing that person’s total debt to as little as $15,000.”

The “nice guy” news wasn’t limited to the United States. One of Australia’s largest ARM firms, Collection House, was featured in Australia Business Review for their friendly approach to debt collecting in Oz. The company’s CEO, Matthew Thomas, noted that he is actively trying to change the perception of debt collection in his country.

“I’m always trying to get people to take that extra 30 seconds to listen to what we do and not judge us based on the taboo,” Thomas said. “We provide so many more services and have a completely different methodology and approach in the way we think about our customers.”

If anyone was wondering how insideARM.com’s mission statement — to shift the public conversation about the ARM industry – works, the examples above should provide a start. The only way people can learn the truth about what collectors do is to tell them. We try to do our part, but it takes the effort of an entire industry to get that word out.

And believe it or not, the press will actually run stories like this.