Use of technology for skip tracing and collecting your debts

Technology advancements are occurring very fast. We are so busy trying to keep up with the latest and greatest keeps.  In the world of delinquent account collections, skip tracing is imperative, and in order to have a good collection department, some form of skip tracing needs to be part of it. Let me start this article by giving you a brief definition of skip tracing:

“Skip tracing is a colloquial term used to describe the process of locating a person's whereabouts for any number of purposes. A skip tracer is someone who performs this task, which may be the person's primary occupation. The term comes from the word "skip" being used to describe the person being searched for, and comes from the idiomatic expression "to skip town," meaning to depart, perhaps in a rush, and leaving minimal clues behind for someone to "trace" the "skip" to a new location.”   (Wikipedia)

Before, skip tracing was a highly manual process that included connecting with “near-bys,” sifting through catalogs and using dedicated skip representatives.

To have a successful skip trace, one must collect a lot of information about the person they are looking for. This may mean visiting former neighbors, talking to past employers and talking to other people who may be in contact with the person. Phone number databases, credit reports and public tax information may also be used to track the location of the person. The information gathered needs to then be analyzed and verified.

In recent times, technology such as internet has become a powerful and valuable tool for debt collectors and skip tracers due to the fact that you can find just about anything you want online including people. The internet is a wealth of information and information can be found in many places such as online telephone directories, free and paid online databases and social networking sites. A lot of information can be found about someone if you search in the right places and add this online information to the information you found offline and you are almost guaranteed to find who you are looking for and have a successful skip trace.

To be competitive with your skip-tracing efforts, it is important that you stay on top of these technology advances and understand the new methodologies to identify and maintain current phone numbers and addresses for contacts. 

One of the most significant changes affecting skip tracing today is the way in which consumers prefer to communicate. Fewer and fewer consumers today are opting to use mobile phones rather than traditional landlines.  They are also communicating more and more via text messaging, e-mail and social media.

 

Consumers moving away from landlines and relying more on Web and mobile technologies to communicate has resulted in significant challenges for skip tracing and the debt-collection industry as a whole. Perhaps the biggest challenge is that there isn’t a definitive mobile phone directory, so contacting consumers is often difficult, if not impossible.   The days when you went to the phone book, criss-cross directory, or reverse directory are old-school and costly compared to the skip tracing technology options today. In fact, just looking for an address or a phone number isn’t the only thing collectors can ask of technology.

In general, with the growth and advancement of technology, the availability and quality of information has dramatically expanded. Price can certainly be an issue, but many times the price is very inexpensive as compared to the benefit you can gain by it. 

You can find plenty of free or low cost options online. In fact, you’ll be surprised at how many entities allow you to search their data. For instance, business licenses for every state are available online as are many professional affiliations. Most local, state and federal law enforcement facilities have their inmate rosters and outstanding warrants presented online.

It is true that you get what you pay for and when free doesn’t cut it; there is a wide variety of fee for service vendors. The most affordable vendors are those that offer subscription services that charge either ala carte or based on number of transactions. However, there are finder services that charge a one time, flat rate for a search. These tend to be more expensive and they are usually searching the same databases the subscription services utilize. 

Another method is social media. Social networking sites such as Twitter, Facebook, or LinkedIn may help someone to locate a debtor.  Social media can help a collectors ability to contact debtors by giving them information they may not have such as a mailing address or phone number – which they can then use to contact a debtor by traditional methods, the phone or by postal mail.

In my experience, technology continues to change the debt collection industry by solving problems, enhancing debt collection processes and automating functions.  Most technology strives to make processes more cost effective and efficient, the internet and online technology has forced collectors to be educated actively involved online.

Why collections is an important part of your business

Managing credit and collecting money are the 2 most important and vital factors which decide the fate of any business.  If you own a business that renders services or sells a product on credit, there is a big chance that at some point you will have a delinquent customer. Account receivables should be considered an asset to your business not a liability that is holding your business back. No matter what your business is or what its size is, at some point or another debt collection will become an issue for you.  Customers who delay payments have become a common scenario these days.   Bad debt or unpaid dues is an unavoidable problem for all organizations which further lead to restricted cash flows hampering the growth of the business.

Right now, with cash tight and business slowing down, companies need to go after the bad debts as a way to raise needed cash.  They need to go after the receivables even it if means getting just something now!

Significant economic change creates opportunities for those who have it in them to deal with it. During economic downturns and worldwide recession the importance of debt collection has come to the fore as a result of the lack of liquidity in the marketplace.  It has been magnified since 2008 with the collapse of many worldwide financial institutions. Consequently, banks have either withdrawn or reduced credit facilities to business and the impact has made firms being unable to discharge their debts in a timely fashion due to the diminished circular flow of funds.  Successful cash flow management should therefore be your main priority. 

BAD DEBT is the one major cause for bankruptcy. In a fast changing economy, selling on credit has a number of advantages, especially when it generates a larger volume of business as well as widens one's market share. In fact, selling on credit often 'Makes' or 'Breaks' a sale and at most times gives one that edge over competition. Yet, one cannot afford to take this area of credit control lightly, as too many companies everyday are mounting with debts that are increasingly doubtful of recovery.

The volatile business conditions of recent years have created problems of cash flow and interest charges never before encountered.

Companies large and small have, in many cases for the first time, come to realize that the trade debtors or receivables, on the balance sheet represent a very substantial and expensive consumer of capital employed. They are also now beginning to accept that, in total, trade debtors represent an investment in the market -place on which the expected return is the profit to be earned only when payment has completed the sale. At the same time, like all investments, those trade debtors are subject to the risks arising from the effect of the economic climate on that market-place generally.

A company can have the best product, an excellent sales record and the most dedicated workforce, but if it does not get paid, it will die.  An unpaid debt is a loan being financed by your company - it means that many companies are prevented from achieving their full potential, because instead of using borrowed money to develop and grow their business, they borrow money just to fund their own sales ledgers.

REMEMBER: Cash is to business, as blood is to the body -- allow it to drain away and the body becomes weak and eventually dies.