Top 17 Tools for Debt Collection Agencies in 2023

The economy is changing at a rapid pace during the era of Covid-19 and the debt collection industry is no different.  While the pandemic has created many challenges for collection agencies, they are many opportunities to improve your collection agency and become more profitable in 2023.

Below, we are covering the top 17 tools that collection agencies should be utilizing to improve profitability!

1. Skip Tracing– Enformion.com allows debt collectors to access 40+ years of historical data by finding current addresses and accurate phone numbers of debtors.  They offer information on 98% of the US Adult Population, so chances are they have helpful information to find debtors and ultimately collect more debts.   Enformion offers batch skip tracing and has different plans to fit any size of collection agency.
2. Payment Processing– Many mainstream payment processors will not accept collection agencies as clients but PaymentVision.com specializes in the debt collection field.  PaymentVision will increase revenue by offering 24/7 payment options; phone payments, online payments, IVR, Mobile Payments.  Imagine coming into the office and viewing how many payments your agency secured while nobody was on the clock?  Reducing payroll expenses while increasing revenue is always a plus!
3. Web Design– If the pandemic taught us anything, you NEED a web presence!  If your website is out of date, now is the time to update it.  Potential clients are judging you based on your website.  ZenoPayments.com offers web design services and specialize in creating web designs that will work for collection agencies.  As they are also a payment processor, they are able to integrate your payment processor so you can take payments online through your website.  A new website design can lead to more clients and account placements.
4. Dialer Software–  While we understand the importance of manual work on some of the tough accounts, the ability to increase productivity is key for modern collection agencies. Acqueon.com offers predictive dialing solutions that increase contacts by up to 4X.  While more contacts are important, WHO you are calling is just as important.  Acqueon combines artificial intelligence with analytics to improve your collection agencies performance all while staying complaint collection rules and regulations. Leveraging AI, data,  and analytics will be key to keeping pace in this fast moving industry and this automated dialer software can help you stay on top.
5. SMS Text Messages–  Adding another method to reach debtors, SMS text messaging could boost your contacts and ultimately your payments.  TextMagic offers SMS services for collection agencies that could be a game changer in terms of reaching debtors.  The days of the land line phones are quickly going the way of the dinosaur. TextMagic claims “SMS achieves a 209% higher response rate than emails, phone calls, or Facebook.”  While collection agencies are familiar with getting phone calls sent to voicemail, TextMagic says  “95% of SMS messages are read within 3 minutes.”  If you want to leverage text messages and eliminate dialing, this service may be worth your time checking out.
6. Licensing & Bonds– The days of collecting debt without a license are long go.  We strongly don’t suggest going “YOLO” as you may end up in court paying out a hefty fine or worse out of business altogether.  We understand that getting a license to collect in states isn’t exciting as landing a new client but a collection agency needs to be licensed in most states.  They are several companies who can assist you, we suggest Scott Bond Services.  As we would never recommend using a new collection agency to a business, the same goes for License Surety Bonds.
7. Debt Collection Groups– It never hurts to stay in touch with industry trends and make connections.  They are many groups and chats going on around the debt collection industry including Facebook group Collection Agency Employment.  The group helps debt collectors looking for a job connect with agencies looking to add talent.
8. Speech Analytics– It would be nice to be able to monitor each and every call your debt collectors make but that isn’t reality.  Side by side’s are effective but pulls management away from other task and drops productivity. Speech analytics can help catch costly violations and increase debt collection productivity. Collection agencies can now measure how often collectors are asking for key phrases such as “payment by phone” or “balance in full”.  Vaspian is a leader in speech analytics software for collection agencies and can help any agency grow while reducing the odds of violations.
9. Headsets– You can buy a cheap headset from Walmart or Amazon, but remember the saying “You get what you pay for”.   If you are looking for headsets that have the highest quality performance and that will last, check out Poly.com.   They offer a wide range of headsets that will work for any agencies budget with features that will keep your debt collectors happy.  They even have solutions that will help making the switch from home office into corporate office which could save your agency money in the long haul.
10. FDCPA Compliance Training– In this era of debt collection, you need a training system that will get debt collectors up to speed on how to collect debt within the FDCPA guidelines.  The last thing a new or growing collection agency needs is to get some heavy fines or in hot water with some FDCPA violations.   Paydit offers a compliance automation platform which is flexible and can help reduce legal actions, complaints, and HR issues.
11. Buy Debt– When you starting out, you may have a shortage of accounts for your collectors to work.  Buying debt portfolios is a way to get an influx of accounts so that your collectors can stay busy generating revenue for your agency.  DebtMarket.net offers a wide range debt to purchase such as medical, payday loans, auto and more!  They have smaller portfolios that are affordable and larger ones that will give an agency plenty of work.
12. Outsourcing Collections– Hiring in the debt collection industry has never been easy. Add in the struggles that all employers have faced during the Covid pandemic and it has been very challenging to keep up with demand. In certain instances, it makes sense to outsource some collections to call centers in India.  Outsource2India provides the ability to connect your agency with debt collection agencies in India that can help collect on past due accounts.  The advantages are simple, reduction in overhead and less hiring headaches.
13. Debt Collection Letters–  The days of buying envelopes, stamps, printing off letters, licking envelopes until your tongue is sore is over! PCI provides a system to customize debt collection letters that will help increase your collections.  PCI offers full 27/7 access to tracking and alerts when your direct mail letters is received. Imagine sending out your debt collection letters, knowing when it was received, then following up with a collection call soon after!
14. Virtual Receptionist & Answering Service– If you starting a collection agency, you are probably juggling a million balls in the air at once.  You switch from collector to marketing to manager within a ten minute span.  Missing calls can be costly as it may mean your collection agency just missed a potential game changer client.  AnwerFirst allows your collection agency to have a professional answering the phone at all times.  You can even teach them how to screen calls and have them live transfer calls in that are looking to make a payment or inquire about your services.
15. Virtual Debt Management– Covid has changed the way we communicate as humans and has added extra lays of difficult in adding new talent to your collections team.  Total CollectR has created a virtual collector that improves debt recovery rates by connecting with customers on channels they prefer.  By using AI-powered technology, Total CollectR can help evaluate debtors accounts and help plan an effective strategy to collect the money owed.  If you are having trouble finding enough manpower to get debtors on the phone, this could be a solution that helps you reduce overhead while increasing contacts and ultimately revenue in the long run.
16. Machine Learning Debt Negotiation– Paydit is a digital repayment portal and debt negotiation platform that leverages machine learning to allow agencies to collect 10X their #1 agent. The 24/7 self-service consumer portal offers an agentless solution where debtors can settle on their time. Paydit claims 65% of user engagement occurs outside of business hours.  This is another tool that leverages technology while reducing the need for human collectors which can help lower cost and increase profitability.
17. CollectionAgencyMatch.com–  A selfish plug but if today’s market if you are looking to grow at scale then sourcing quality debt collection leads is a must.  While cold calling can still work, smoking hot collection agency leads that are easy to close is the answer to your solution if you want more clients.

We hope this list will help you improve your collection agency profitability and set you on path for 2024 to be a record year!