Pilot Episode 1 The Collector

Guest: Bethany Robertson  Debt Recovery Solutions of  Ohio

Vice President, co-owner, and founder of Debt Recovery Solutions of Ohio, Inc. since 2002 where her vision and passion for strategy continues to push the company to new heights.

 Bethany earned her BA in Business Administration from Mt Vernon Nazarene University in Mt Vernon, Ohio while simultaneously running her own collection agency.

 Her passions include her love of God and family – especially her two children, Jake and Magey. She is also dedicated to inspiring others to reach their potential and constantly working on being a better version of herself.

 Growth in all aspects of her personal and professional life is her daily focus, but she truly loves the simple things in life: a stroll on the beach or in the woods, a great challenging and deep conversation, or a lazy nap on the dock. These are the ways she enjoys spending her time reflecting, living and loving.

 One of Bethany’s favorite quotes is from Maya Angelou and it touches on something that she has had to rely on in her life: her own courage. “Courage is the most important of all the virtues because without courage you can’t practice any other virtue consistently. You can practice any virtue erratically, but nothing consistently without courage”.

What you'll learn about in this episode: The debt collection business revolves around getting the right person to engage in a conversation around resolving a past due bill. How this conversation happens is under constant scrutiny, because of the changes in technology, consumer preference, and regulations governing this process.  In this pilot episode, Bethany and I dive into the heart of the operation, the collector.  Who they are, what they do, and what it takes to find, train, motivate and keep the best ones.

Resources:

• Website: https://drsohio.com/
• LinkedIn:Company https://www.linkedin.com/company/debt-recovery-solutions-of-ohio-inc/
• Email bjoyrob@gmail.com
• LinkedIn: Personal https://www.linkedin.com/in/bethany-robertson-38368112a/

Additional Resources:

• Collector Job stats: https://www.zippia.com/debt-collector-jobs/demographics/
• 3 Pivots for better collections Mary Shores  https://www.maryshores.com/post/the-biggest-secret-in-collections
• Donald Miller Negotiation
• Grant Cordone
• Knowledge Source

Transcript

Lex Patterson: 0:02

This is an attempt to collect debt and any information this is an attempt to collect the death in any information. For that information of that verb any information obtained will be used for that purpose. Hello, listeners, this is Lex Patterson, and you're listening to the pilot episode of fair debt. Before diving in, I want to take a moment to say thank you. I know you have endless listening options with millions of shows spanning limitless topics out there. But here you are with us. We know your time is valuable. So thank you for sharing some of it with us. I believe we do have something worthwhile to say, and commit to adding value to your day with every episode. So what do we have to say? I believe the foundation of our businesses rests upon the experience we develop with our employees, our clients, and the consumers we interact with, even and especially in times of disruption. If we could summarize this podcast and distill it into one thought it would be this stories shape our lives, and have the ability to transform our world. Yet, the stories of our industry have for the most part gone untold. We hope to change that. And over the course of this season, we want to explore debt collection in a new light. We're excited for you to join us on this journey as we dig deeper into debt collection from various perspectives, and explore the challenges companies face in this ever changing landscape.

Unknown: 1:41

So welcome to the pilot episode of fair debt, where we dive into the heart of the operation, the collector, who they are, what they do, and what it takes to find, train, motivate and keep the best ones. Why don't you tell the audience who you are where you're located a little bit about your story and and The Ders story too. Okay. Well, I'm Bethany Robertson, I'm from Mansfield, Ohio, born and raised in Mansfield, Ohio. And I started this business with my partner in 2002. In the basement of her home, we both brought collection experience, we had worked for another agency, I had prior experience in the account receivables world, with a trucking company, actually. And she and I just both had a vision of creating a certain culture for our employees working in the industry with integrity. And so it was really Hey, would you like to do this? Sure. And we ended up with four employees in the basement of our home. And here we are in 2021. And we have 18 employees. Wow. So that's cool. You know what we're gonna we're gonna dive into today. The collector, which, which I feel is really the heart of the operation. Sounds like did you so did you start out as a collector then? Oh, yeah, I started out as a collector and data entry and posting payments. And we did everything from the time that account came in until the time that went to the attorneys, the two of us and like I said, there was four of us that started we, we did it all. So majority of the 19 years we've been in business collection is obviously the heart of it in where I spent most of it most of my attention was there. Okay. Okay, so I'm just a little bit to you. So I think we talked about this before your collectors are in the office now. But did you ever go remote during the pandemic? We did, we went remote for about two months, the entire collection floor worked remote. And there were a few administration that came in on a daily basis, but the majority of our staff worked remote. And they did really well.

Lex Patterson: 4:00

With with the transition to Okay, so did you did you have any particular challenges surrounding that? Communication? That was the biggest challenge.

Bethany Robertson: 4:12

We no longer had the ability to walk over to someone's desk or walk down stairs or stand up and have a quick meeting if an issue arose or so communication was huge. And prior to going home. And when the pandemic started, you know, unfolding and news releases were you know, on a daily basis, we set up daily meetings where we would keep everyone informed of what was going on what we were hearing learning what was expected of us as employers employees, so it kind of started prior to remote work, but then we just kept that going with morning zoom calls. And actually we still meet on face to face now on a daily basis. Okay,

Lex Patterson: 4:59

good.

Bethany Robertson: 5:00

So, did we notice changes in productivity since the pandemic? To be honest, it's increased the productivity. Yeah, I'm very pleased with how our staff handled the remote work. I think the pandemic in general caused us to reevaluate everything we did and how we did it. And when we had some people go remote, and somewhere in in house, we revised some of our processes and procedures, and which increase efficiency in upstairs and then downstairs on the collection floor. They enjoyed the flexibility that they were able to listen to whatever music they could listen to, while they were on the phone working. It wasn't they enjoyed the different atmosphere as well, and their productivity did increase. And so it's still it's still high, too. It never decreased or went down. Since we've gone back. And to be honest, we still offer the flexibility of working from home. So we had a little bit of a spell with COVID outbreak in our particular city. Some of us here tested positive for it. So we sent that everyone else home, they were worked remote, in right before Thanksgiving. So we did not want to expose anyone. So if they did want to get together with their family, they could feel safe to do that. So they were worked remote two weeks before Thanksgiving. And they liked that flexibility of going home, we had some snow come in like for three or four days of heavy snow. We sent everyone home, they worked from home, they didn't have to worry about driving and getting stuck. And they liked that flexibility. And to be honest, as an employer, I like the flexibility. We've had a couple people get sick, they didn't test positive. But hey, I don't feel well, I'm coming down with a cold, they pick up their stuff, they go home, they work, they get better, and they come back in. And it's a win win for everyone to

Lex Patterson: 6:56

Yeah, that's cool. That's really cool. I was researching some information and found on this website zipper, or zippia.com. I'm gonna see if this resonates with you. It's kind of interesting. They said in 2020, the collector workforce reached a whopping 75,941 collectors in 2020. It's also interesting to note that we're at a time of all time lows for collector unemployment. Only 4.8%, according to this website, of collectors are unemployed. And again, this is 2020 stats, currently over 12,000 job openings nationwide for collectors, though. So unemployment low, lots of jobs open, is what I'm seeing is that is that resonate with you?

Bethany Robertson: 7:49

Yeah, we're having challenges finding collectors. Okay. And that's been the challenge for for the 19 years, we've been in business.

Lex Patterson: 7:59

Okay, so then. So then you add to this, you know, what, that I suspect that if we were to interview high school college students, and ask them what they wanted to be when they graduate, a bill collector would not be high on that list. I would think you know, just from what I know. So the question is, how, how do you attract talent? Where do you look? You know, and what skills translate to a fit.

Bethany Robertson: 8:24

We recently took a different spin with attracting talent. And we have quite a few young people down on the floor now. But we look for someone for growth. That's what we're pitching for the young, the young individuals is we want to grow as a company. And its professional and personal growth is what I focus on in our culture as well. So I'm looking for individuals that, no, they don't want to be a collector for the rest of their life. But how can they come in? We teach them some really good life skills of communication, goal setting, empathy, connection, you can learn a lot in the collection industry, that people that come out of high school and college, they don't have a clue that they don't have a clue what the collection industry is. They don't they're not taught anymore. I don't think in high school, how to balance checkbooks, insurance co pays, that's just not taught. And so the the few young ones that we have downstairs, they've actually brought this to light and from who we've attracted, they now in turn, want to go into high schools and teach financial literacy. So we're partnering up with our local chamber, and a program that they already haven't set that they can actually speak to high school students. So it's kind of a win win. They're the people that we're attracting. They're They're young, they're hungry to learn. We're focusing on personal growth and professional growth. And right now it's a win win for all of us, too. So, okay, we're looking for young, hungry people, individuals, however, there's some older generation that they can offer a great skill set to, you know, it's, so we don't want to exclude them and we don't exclude them. So we do have some veterans down there mixed in with the younger ones. And it's just hard to find in keep young or old, it seems like so

Lex Patterson: 10:30

the recruiting part of that, tell me tell me about so you've got, you've got the younger ones, you've got some of the older ones, are you? Are you just doing standard recruiting? Where you put it out on on job boards? Do you? Do you do any internships? Do you tell me tell me a little bit about that

Bethany Robertson: 10:45

your standard recruiting right now. And to be honest, the few young people that we have there, they are sharing the opportunity with some of their friends. Now, we haven't found any their friends that have come on board. But they are a proponent of this is a great place to work to, which helps. So just right now, it's it's just job boards, we have looked into interning with a local college several years ago, and that just never panned out. So that doesn't mean that we won't do it again. We currently are hiring. And it's kind of sad. would normally we would get 15 resumes a day, and we received three or four since Monday. And that's we're not quite sure why your house. So it's causing us to go back and re evaluate actually, what can we do?

Lex Patterson: 11:35

Yeah, so my question surrounding that would be, is there a stigma? Like do you list it as a bill collecting job? Or do you call it a customer service rep? Or do you try and soften that

Bethany Robertson: 11:48

we do soften it? Yes, we do soften it, and then when we get them in the door, then we tell them what it's about. And we do put a spin on it, that it's not like the regular collections, because you know, we don't want to be perceived as that. Our clients don't want us to be perceived as just another collection agency. So we do put a spin on it, that we are communicators, we're connectors, we listen, there's a lot of empathy. So it's not just about asking for the balance do and for money, there's more to it than that we're problem solvers. You know. So we do try to spin it in a different in a more positive light than just calling someone and asking for money all day. Because really, that's not what it is anymore.

Lex Patterson: 12:34

So what do you think, is the most important, I don't know, if you heard the term real skill, it's kind of a Seth golden type of thing, but a soft skill, you know, needed to be a collector, like, I mean, I want to I'd like to know kind of the the hard skills that you think need to be there, and then maybe some of those soft skills to like, what a real skills I am going to call him.

Bethany Robertson: 13:00

The first thing that comes to mind is listening. I don't know if you would consider that a soft skill or a hard skill, but listening is huge. We spend a lot of time in training on the skill of listening, and what it means to listen, and how do you translate what you're hearing and communicating that back to the consumer? Because you can get caught up in the emotion of the conversation, or you can if you're truly listening and deciphering what they're saying. And it's more reading in between the lines. And if there's a discernment, then maybe that's, that's a soft skill that goes on to listening, your best collectors can discern what is not being said. And their questions are based around that. And those are truly the remarkable collectors there. They've been in it for years. It's, that's the true soft skill. We have a collector, she's been with us for 1314 years, she was a collector with another agency, and we have a lot of conversations surrounding that she's getting ready to retire, she's gonna go part time. And I'm like, I don't know how to teach that skill, of discernment. truly listening to what's not being said.

Lex Patterson: 14:20

So, yeah, so I'm, I'm wondering, you know, as I think about that, too, like, what what would translate, you know, into that, you know, like, Are there prior experience? Is their prior experience is there? You know, they worked at this particular thing, and you've seen that those ones generally hit a stride or is it more just that truly soft skill, right, or that real skill of empathy probably plays into that I'm guessing you're listening, listening with empathy and really seeking to understand as opposed to just trying to close the deal kind of, you know, Yeah, yeah,

Bethany Robertson: 15:01

she wouldn't what she did prior she was in customer service. So I think there definitely has to be some type of genuine care for the other person on the phone, you know, it's not just about closing the deal, because the consumers can feel that they can hear it, they can sense it. And no one likes to feel like they're being sold or pushed into anything, you know. So she has a wonderful knack of being firm in drawing the line, and she's able to discern when she has to do that. And when that tactic is not going to work, either, you know, when she's able to read their tone of voice, their situation. And it's, it's truly a gift. And I don't know how to teach that that's been the million dollar question for 19 years is how do you teach it? How do you develop it. But we have a lot of conversations surrounding it, it seems like the young ones, they can see what she's doing, and they hear what she's doing. And they're fascinated by it. And so it's interesting to see how they pick up pieces of it. But yet, it's really hard for them to implement. And I think a lot of it comes just from experience, just from being told no just from Miss judging, Miss discerning people in so I think that's where she gets her expertise in the young ones. It it's just an experience thing, which can only happen over time.

Lex Patterson: 16:29

Yeah, I'm wondering to Bethany, you know, I've been read a lot. And I come across a couple of books, I can't think of the name of the one author. But the Donald Miller that we've talked about, too, has a has a whole webinar series on negotiation. And I wonder if some of that could come into play with that as well, you know, just because what triggered that, for me was when you said, listening, but then also understanding where you have to be firm, where you're where you're going from Win Win to win, lose, you know, and recognizing those two switches, if you will, where I've got to be more firm now, you're not going to control this i I'm in control, you know, versus no, I need to give you some latitude. I need to understand what your story is that type of stuff. You know,

Bethany Robertson: 17:20

it's funny that you say, you talk about negotiations, because a year ago was it's been a little over a year ago, we subscribed to some training from basic that's just sales training. And I've always said that collectors you're you're a salesperson, that's what you are, you are in sales. So it's through cart, Grant, CARDONE and CARDONE training. And he has a whole knowledge base of videos that he's created. He breaks it down the whole selling process negotiation process. And we have been watching videos every day for a year. And then that's how we start our morning is talking about a skill set or a process. Now granted, it doesn't translate perfectly to the collection world. And we've adapted some of his 810 step process of selling and I think he really uses real estate and automobile sales. But the concepts that he shares with us very easily translatable into the collection world and the last two months, we've been talking about negotiation and closing. And they do talk about that, that switch the Win Win and listening and not allowing you to, to react to the emotion on the other end of the phone. It's but But technically, that's what collectors are they're salespeople, as well. Yeah. And that skill set you need in every aspect of your life is to sell. Sure,

Lex Patterson: 18:45

yeah. Yeah. So I'm thinking about this then. So do you think like, is the strategy that you're trying to do? Do you try and define like, okay, if I'm going to go to the the effort of listing the ad and doing all this, I might as well hire two or three or four if I can find them and then put them all in training together and then the ones that emerge kind of are that show the skill set? Okay, so, so then cuz I was going to ask you like on the interview part of it, I mean, are there certain interview questions that you find help you weed out?

Bethany Robertson: 19:22

Yes, we're still fine tuning those. In I just had a conversation with our HR is a really he wants to dive a little bit deeper into one anxiety seems to be a big issue nowadays. Um, how do they handle anxiety? Do they have anxiety, you know, that the last several employees that we've hired, they both left due to anxiety and not necessarily anxiety surrounding the job just in general. So it's it's a different twist that we're going to have to take to figure out are they an anxious person, can they handle this, you know, because when they, when we first bring them on, they're introduced to the FDCPA. All of the laws, you know, we make it very upfront like this is important that you have to follow these laws. And if you we have a high anxiety person, they immediately take that they don't want to mess up, they think we're going to get you know, you listen to those videos, and they can create some some tension and some anxiety. So yeah, we do ask very specific questions, but very real time, we're also re evaluating those questions. And I think it also goes along with where we're at in life and the pandemic, and everything that's transpired over the over the last year is we have to be very much aware of the anxiety issue, and fear that is very real, and all of us nowadays as well.

Lex Patterson: 20:51

So and that's I'm sure that's on both ends of the conversation, too. Right. It's, it's on the collector, even the ones that are experienced, but it's also on the consumer, because we're going through this thing together where we're not necessarily in the same boat, you know, but we're in the same storm. So, yeah. Okay. Well, here's one last question on that then. So I saw on this zip again, that 78% of debt collectors speak Spanish. So is multilingual a requirement in your office?

Bethany Robertson: 21:27

It is not in our office? No. We're not in a region of the country that would wouldn't require that. But I can see where? Yeah, it definitely could be.

Lex Patterson: 21:37

Yeah, so yeah, so I thought that was a Yeah, so. Okay, so you found the candidate, let's say you found your candidates. Now let's talk about how you train, train them to approach this very difficult job. And you kind of already alluded to that. But let's talk about your process. You know, maybe some of the questions I that are on my mind with it is how long does it take before they're on the phone making calls? How long? Does it take to see return on investment? Do you go do you have ongoing training as part of your process, which I'm sure you do, but I'd like to hear about that. And then just another stat to throw out at you according again to this thing is that 40% of debt collectors only remain at their job for one to two years. So that really, I think, coincides with what you're saying really is. And there's another stat that we'll talk about, I think later on here, too, about the age of collectors that a large percentage of them are women over 40. So that's an interesting stat to me. And then if you combine that with a one to two year thing, you know, I don't know, maybe we'll get to that in a minute. But anyways, let's talk about your your process, your training process a little bit?

Bethany Robertson: 23:02

Well, we bring them on board in the first conversation they have is with me, to be honest. And I said, I hope it's my intention to set the stage of what we expect from them what they can expect from us. And we talk a lot about values and what's important to them, what are they looking for, in, in an employer, what are we looking for from them and an employee in the the biggest value that we hold across the board in our culture is just continual growth, I want to set the stage prior to them getting into the FDCPA prior to them into getting professional collection technique, where there is a very stringent black and white you can't do this, you're going to get you know, all of that information that's torn up them is you are going to make mistakes, we are going to make mistakes. And as long as you're open to continually learning, it's, you're not going to have a problem here. And so I feel that that's very, very important. tone to set right off the bat is there is a lot to learn. You cannot learn it all in a week. You can't even or then learn it all in six months. It's a gradual thing. And we we test the waters with them um, you know, we have them work small balances after you know that that's their, their first calls that they make are you know, once they're on the phone, which is normally from, I don't know, they're they're doing good if they're on the phone within six to seven days, and they're just smaller balances. They're just making outbound. They're leaving messages. They're not taking inbound yet, you know, so we gradually ramp them up to being on the dialer, taking inbounds making outbound so, but I always continually go back to the fact that you're always learning. We evaluate them on a daily basis. We listen to their calls, we have them listen to their calls. We break down calls that they've had Give them calls that are veteran collectors have had good calls, bad calls, we expose them to all of everything that we can. And we are continually breaking it down. You know, like the football teams that watch video and break down the film. That's that's the basic concept of it. And we spend a lot of time making calls back in the classroom making calls black back in the classroom, they do sit with the veterans, obviously. So they can listen, they can ask questions, that seems to be the biggest benefit that they all walk away and say that that's the biggest help. And even if they're on their own, they're back sitting and watching. So because you know, you can absorb everything that especially the veteran saying and throwing at them in one sitting. So we kind of piecemeal it to be honest. And it's all about the continual growth. And that's how we we approach the training.

Lex Patterson: 25:56

Okay, so you mentioned six to seven days, if you're doing good, you could expect him to be on the phone. So let's back up a little bit, though. So you probably you bring them in you, you give them the orientation, I guess on the culture, you you then move them into let's say system training, well, maybe first you maybe talk to him about all the regulations and give him the uch. ACA.

Bethany Robertson: 26:22

Yep, ACA training where we do have knowledge source as well, which is a database that can, that asks that has questions and tests on their FDCPA knowledge and different scenarios is well, that we'll be implementing our policies and procedures as part of the test as well, that's something new that we just started. Last fall of building that database and through knowledge source, then they do get system training, which is pretty simple. Normally, they the system, they don't have any trouble catching onto the system. And they do some piloting where they're not making the calls, but they're working the keyboards, you know, of the on the system, and they're letting the veteran know where to go. And what did you know, they're kind of in the driver's seat, we call it piloting, but that the veteran is actually making the phone calls and actually communicating and talking.

Lex Patterson: 27:17

So you're doing a tandem thing, there were the veterans on the call. And then you got the new collector running the keyboard, and they're pulling up the screens there. They're typing in actions, or they're typing in history, or they're, they're learning the flow of the account flow on on the system. And how long would you say it takes them to pick that up? Like it is in less than a day?

Bethany Robertson: 27:39

Yeah, yeah, I was gonna say, maybe two days tops, but the systems are not that they're not hard to pick up at all. Okay, especially the younger ones they pick up very, very quickly. Yeah.

Lex Patterson: 27:54

I hope you're enjoying this pilot episode of fair debt. This podcast is produced by kindred force media, check out our website at Kindred force com for additional resources to this and every episode, including bios, and contact information, as well as links to additional content. And while you're there, don't forget to hit that subscribe button. Thank you. Now back to our show. You've heard the adage, I'm sure what gets measured gets done, you know. But what I'm wondering about, are there lessons you've learned about measuring maybe the wrong things?

Bethany Robertson: 28:34

I've thought about that question. emailed it to me. gonna sound crazy. But yes, collections, the total that they collect is extremely important. And there for a while, in my, in our younger years of being in business, that's all I was focused on. And there's so much more that goes into that. There's the non measurable of attitude of our culture. How many outbound their tone of voice that yes, you can measure it a little bit, maybe not measure is the right word, but monitor it. And so I think sometimes we do get caught up. And I know I personally have got caught up, this is the bottom line, this is what they're collecting. And you miss that opportunity to teach them some really awesome personal and professional skill sets. If it was just focused on the number of they're not making the role, you know, their time to go, they get in my younger years, that's what I would have focused on. And I look back and there are some employees that I probably let go too early, and I didn't truly just spend the time to teach them. And so, so yeah, that that was that was a loaded question right there. And I don't know if I answered it directly or not, but there's so much more than that. The collection Okay.

Lex Patterson: 30:00

Yeah, which which mindset, I think is kind of what you're getting at. And I want to, I want to dive into this a little bit because I've been I'm fascinated about this particular topic, too. I've been reading a book called think, again by Adam Grant. And I don't know if you've seen a lot of his stuff, but you know, and then I follow him on LinkedIn. So I saw this interesting feed that he had a while back. And so the message surrounds how we can get, you know, in the book, the messages, how we can get stuck in our mindsets, and how that can affect our growth and stuff. Right. And, and I'm thinking, man, you know, this is really pertinent with the topics that we're talking about with the industry stigma, and all those types of things, too. And you mentioned thinking again, in the pandemic, you know, so it's just a very fitting piece, I think, to this. So he, he conducted this research at this college, this universities call center, where they were asked to do phone, they were doing phone calls to potential donors for the school, and the work was grim. The employees didn't get paid much they were they suffered frequent rejections, people were unhappy about getting called during dinner, the turnover was high, the morale was low. And so he was thinking, how do you motivate workers to say, stay on the phone and bring in the donations, right? And so what he did with the research is he introduced him to somebody who was aided by these dollars. And what he did is he split this study into two groups. So he took one group and let them do the way they had always done it. Right. Then he took this other group, and he introduced him to people within the school like what what did those donations do for the school? The personal account of that, right? You know, when you talk about that mindset, I think, I guess that the thought that I wanted to just put out there was that type of thing of really translating what they do and the power it has, yes. Back into the collection process, you know,

Bethany Robertson: 32:14

yeah, that's huge. That's awesome. Our veteran collector, she gets a Christmas card from one of her older ladies that she talked to every month. And for I think it's about three years, this is the third year that she's gotten a Christmas card from this older lady, just as sweet as can be, and that she talks to her every month. But it's in we always share that story with the younger collectors to come in that that it's more than just again, collecting. The mindset is huge. It it really is huge. So and I don't know if you can measure mindset to go back to your original question. But it's definitely something that you have to monitor. And you have to continue to plant seeds, and to invest in the mindset of your employees 120%, something that we're just going to implement. I just launched it at our meeting this month. It's called a professional growth Achievement Plan. And I kind of pieced it imparted from other ideas that I've had in books that I've read and podcast. But what I'm having all of our employees do is I've shared with them, obviously, our goal and our vision. And I have tasked all of them to list their responsibilities, everything that they do, and then from their responsibilities to come up with three goals that they want to accomplish, and how does their goals and their responsibilities, how does that directly relate and empower us as a whole to grow. And then I'm going to start the week of the 22nd, I'll have individual meetings with each employee, to actually I'm going to share my Three professional goals with them, and how it will impact the growth of our company as a whole. They're going to share their responsibilities and their three goals. And then from that, we will meet every other month, and we're going to have like an email thread for the entire company so we can celebrate some of our wins, we can celebrate what we're doing and how some of the small day to day things that we do consistently, really, really well will result in the growth of our company. It's not one huge major thing. It's the day to day consistent tasks that we do with the right mindset with the right responses. And I think if we continue to communicate that I don't know how we can lose, either. So I'm excited to to launch that I'm excited to have those interactions with the employees that I think will eventually and should I hope will translate into their personal life as well. You know, when you're talking about goal setting and how can you basically try to help them look at what they do and why They do it with a little bit different twist in the actual impact that they do make on our, our company, on the industry on our community. That's one of our core values. Is that impact and influence?

Lex Patterson: 35:14

Yeah, yeah. Okay. Yeah, that I mean, and that stuff is just fascinates me. And it's kind of the full circle thing too, because you get the the Christmas card from the consumer. But then also, I'm sure there's the peace with the client. And when you're in medical collections, and you're dealing with local hospitals, that, like really having the whole staff understand the impact that that has on that hospital to, you know, because we count on those hospitals, where they're local, you know, you might not have another hospital for how many miles away, you know, and when you're when your child falls and gets, you know, a cut or a broken arm or something, you know, or we get in an accident, we need that help immediately. And yet, you know, the service that we provide, I think really is critical to them staying in business, really is that story never gets out there. You know. So I think it's another angle that that needs to be brought up brought forward. So one more topic. So how do you spot? How do you spot trouble? So baiting? You know, are there keywords that you're maybe like, do you use call voice analyzers? And

Bethany Robertson: 36:36

we don't, we've tested it. I think maybe a year and a half, two years ago, we, we had a vendor that we tested it, but we don't use it, I don't see right now the value in it, because you know, we can hear everything that's going on. We listen and we monitor calls. And but the trouble and the baiting, the big red flags for us. And what we warn our agents about is if you have someone on the phone, that are asking very specific questions, and they're not letting up that that seems to be we haven't had too many of them. But we have enough to know that that is get a manager on the phone, get an owner on the phone, get to get something to just take the pressure off the agent, but it's the very direct questions or I'm recording this phone call or they act like they know the law, or they want to spew some some consequences if you don't, that's when there's a red flags for us.

Lex Patterson: 37:39

Okay, yeah. And then you mentioned call monitoring and coaching. So you are you? Are you actually barging in on some of those? Are you just actively listening? Do you do call recording after the fact Tell me about that. We're

Bethany Robertson: 37:52

a combination of all of that we have the capability to bargain. Um, you know, the newer agents that we hire, we we listen, you know, we can listen as well. And we do listen. Um, we record and then we're review at a later time. So we do a combination of all of that, as well.

Lex Patterson: 38:10

Okay. Yeah. So, here's, here's one for you. What do you feel is the biggest challenge in the collection industry today,

Bethany Robertson: 38:21

overcoming the stigma, of just a negative stigma of that's all we want as money. Because it, the industry has been evolving. It's the image of the industry that has not caught up with what we're doing. You know, hospitals have a different expectation on us. They do want someone friendly, and that can connect, and that can be problem solvers and communicate. And I think the collection agencies and collectors were fully aware of those expectations from the medical and consumer advocacy is huge. It's just the overall image of the industry for what it has not caught up with what we actually do. And that's a big challenge.

Lex Patterson: 39:04

Yeah. Yeah. So along that same line, do you have success stories you'd like to share and get out to the world? Or I guess what I'm looking for is that one day that made you proud you were a collector?

Bethany Robertson: 39:20

That's a hard one. I think, let me think. I've been thinking about this since you asked me the question. Um I think it's just the overall impact. Or maybe it's just in my mind set in my shift and the fact that we do make a difference, and we can make a difference. You know, I don't know if it's like one day that Oh, I that made me proud. I think it's the evolution of the industry in general, that I've witnessed over the years. I mean, I remember attending a conference in Arizona and 2005, to be honest, and I remember that specifically, because that's the same year that I lost my grandma. And so it sticks out very, very clear in 2005, were the shift for consumer advocacy for more than just being more than just a collection agency. I remember being really excited about that, and where the industry was going. Because I did have a hard time just asking for money, and just, I never wanted to be just a collector, or just a collection agency, there was always something more for me than that. So I just think overall, the growth of the industry in general is, I can proudly say that I own a collection agency, and I no longer have to, I don't feel the need to say, oh, but we're not, we're one of the nice ones. That's what we're the nice ones I used to qualify, I don't have to do that anymore. Because I know what we stand for, I know why we do it, I know the impact and the influence that it has on individual basis and on, you know, our community with the services that we provide to our local hospitals that I guess that just in general makes me proud. And what we're able to offer our employees to it's more than just a job. And I never want it to be like that for them as well. We look at it as we're family, I say we're a dysfunctional family. But we're a family nonetheless. And we're all here to grow and learn together. And if we can keep that mindset, then we're able to ride the waves in the changes in the industry as well.

Lex Patterson: 41:35

And I think you tapped into something that's so important to Bethany, and that is that you're a vital part of the community. You know, they're it's a vital part that you play in, you know, that economic peace, right? Yeah. So yeah. Okay, I guess the final question I have, are there areas that you believe technology could improve the data collector, and like, what the collector is doing right now? Are there gaps? Are there things that you wish that if you could wave a magic wand that technology could solve one day?

Bethany Robertson: 42:14

It would be the fact that it would legitimize who we are, you know, that's the biggest hurdle that they have is we have to do the verifications, you know, so it comes across is, you know, sometimes shady, what can you verify your date of birth, you know, you just different things like that. So we could have technology, verify who we are to the consumer, and we know we're talking to the right person. And that gap is bridged right off the bat, they know who we are in, we would have to eliminate all of that verification and sketchiness. And are we getting scammed? And, you know, our collectors spend a lot of time? No, we're legit business. This is our website, you know, because you get so many calls nowadays, on Auto Warranty insurance and all of that stuff that we were fighting that battle, too. So I wish somehow we could segment and make us different from the other ones that are taking advantage of the dialing systems

Lex Patterson: 43:15

that Yeah, yeah. Yeah, that's big. That's

Bethany Robertson: 43:19

that we just get lumped in in in that. That mix of calls.

Lex Patterson: 43:25

That's huge. Yeah. All right. Well, thank you. Thank you. Thank you for listening to this episode of fair debt. And thank you, Bethany Robertson of ders, Ohio for being our guest on our pilot episode. And tune in next time for Episode Two, when we'll be speaking with Mary shores about how connection is currency. See you next time.