Companies and businesses today readily recognise the benefits of outsourcing and engaging the services of a professional debt collection agency. With an immediate cost saving of not having to employ and maintain additional staff and the credit personnel getting over the phobia and myth of 'We can't be doing our jobs if we need to use an outside third party", these benefits can be quickly realised, but beware there are debt collection agencies and there are debt collection agencies warns Hellen Riley-Tombs, corporate solicitor for Debtor Management Ltd.

Benefits of this third party involvement enable the matter to be mediated, resolved and documented by an independent party, thus reducing the days outstanding and write offs. Additionally it establishes efficient procedures and control for delinquent debtors to be put into place in line with a credit policy and has a side benefit of educating your customers that you expect payment for goods or services supplied and will enforce your payment terms if required to do so.

Finding the correct debt recovery agency is extremely important if you want to achieve the desired result of reducing those amounts outstanding in the debtor's ledger. The right agency should work closely with the client and build a relationship to gain as much knowledge about the nature of the business and it's idiosyncrasies to achieve a successful result. Most commercial debts require a one on one approach and be proactively worked some times 'outside the square' for successful recovery rather than being handled "en mass" with automated processes.

Hellen says, "many companies that employ debt agencies may not be receiving the level of service they would like and at times are even down right unhappy, but continue to use them month after month and can't understand why they never seem to get anywhere in reducing their overdues. If these overdues are not appropriately actioned they often end up costing the company further loss and could well end up as write offs".

A professional agency can give back to the credit manager many hours of valuable time enabling them to leave the specialists to handle the likely problem debtors, allowing the department personnel to move on with the managing of the daily cash-flow which is the life blood of any business.

It appears there are many reasons why credit personnel are reluctant to make the effort of replace their delinquent agency. They may have inherited the current agency they are using when they took the job and have been just too busy to look at changing irrespective of how many times they have to be chase their agency for information or other issues. Complacency and procedures that enable a change to be made are often difficult within a company structure so it is easier to leave things status quo. There may also be the worry that the next agency will be worse than the one they are currently using, and what will happen to the debts with that debt collection agency if they change. A professional agency will have little problem in assisting a prospective client through such a transition process if required.

The result of continuing with a poor performing agency can be the possible marring of your company's or business's reputation, particularly if people are treated unprofessionally or with disrespect, then word of mouth will spread and it's the company or the business that suffers as a result, not generally the debt collector. As a result of this, opportunities to recover cash are lost and debtors become uncooperative adding further cost to the recovery procedure. Any funds recovered should be accounted for and be placed in a specific trust account and provided these have cleared, these should be returned to the client monthly. Should this not occur, immediately withhold any further debt instructions until payment of these funds are received. 'Other issues to be considered" says Hellen, are such things as do you have a one on one relationship directly with your collector? and do various agency personnel you don't know, constantly ring you to ask what do you want done next?. A good agency will have experienced personnel who know the relevant Acts and legal procedures and should recommend to you the next step and simply be looking for your final decision. In addition to this, with regular reporting and contact you should still be able to maintain control over your debts and how they are handled in relation to the debt amount against the amount of funds spent, with approval for such expenditure being sought prior to conducting any action.

When considering your agency look for a range of services that includes all round support as part of your requirement and do not accept an agency just because they offer what appears on the surface to be the a cheap rate. Commissions set by the original debt value submitted and commission on payments are two very different things, so look closely prior completing any agreement with an agency. Look further at the experience and structures within the agency and with a few well chosen questions it will be quite easy to see who you should be using.