What the Collection Industry Must do to Win Big in 2024 and Beyond
Harry Strausser, President
Applied Innovation, Inc.
Last year marked my 50th anniversary in the accounts receivable management industry. In 1973 my parents opened an agency in northeast Pennsylvania when I was 12. Those of us who are fortunate to have found a career as a second or third generation agency owner have seen unimaginable change in our industry. It has provided perspectives that younger collectors will never understand. It was the Old Wild West of the ARM industry. A rotary phone in your right hand, a cigarette in your left hand, 4×6 ledger cards for collection notes and paper, paper everywhere. Ah, the good old days.
To put the time frame into perspective for our younger readers, if you are a gamer today, the big deal when I was a kid was a game called “Pong”. A ball bounced off vertical bars on each side of the TV screen. If you were really good, you could increase the speed of the ball to a very rapid pace. Incredibly thrilling. Much has changed, hasn’t it?
And CHANGE is at the very foundation of the ARM industry. As a speaker and writer in this industry for decades, I have a couple quotes I’ve used often. One claims that “Change is inevitable. Growth is Optional”. If you don’t change or are unwilling to do so, you will not survive the next generation of this industry. Another is, “You can survive the old way and you can survive the new way. It is the transition that will kill you.” And kill you it will, unless you have developed the right partnerships in your respective companies. Vendor partners are the very pillars of your business and more so today than any time in the history of the industry.
If you are in business today, what do you have to do to still be in business next year? The year after? Knowledge of both state and federal rules and regulations is important. Involvement in industry associations is imperative to keep abreast of changes happening now and on the horizon. Maintaining a talented team creates a momentum to move forward. However, the single most critical dynamic is the ability to embrace technology and the utilization of that technology to make your operation more efficient, cutting edge and profitable. Without technology you will not survive.
In my current role as President of a technology company, Applied Innovation Inc., I am immersed in conversations with collection firms all across the US each week. Last month, a client submitted a
contract termination letter to us. They were “closing their doors” as they just couldn’t keep up with the pace. Many firms are on legacy CRM’s which do not allow them to leverage the technologies of their competitors. Email? Texting? Artificial Intelligence? Very difficult to initiate and track if your base platform is not in cinq with the contemporary methods of communication desired by the consumer public.
All around us we see change. Many companies repel the urge to modify their operations, their cultures, their mindsets and ultimately their technologies. Today, we are certain the collection firms of tomorrow will be those who cast aside doubt and forge forward bravely upon the new frontiers of the ARM industry. It is a new generation of collectors who will employ approaches to recover money we never dreamed of 50 years ago.
Success in business is very much a choice. Sometimes our choices take us in directions that make us nervous and cautious. But sometimes those brave decisions are the difference between those that continue and those that lose their way. Much like Robert Frost concludes his famous poem, The Road Not Taken:
I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.
Make a difference in what you do within your own organization. Listen to your key vendors as they urge you to take a leap into tomorrow by letting go of what you refuse to release today.
Applied Innovation has been serving the ARM industry with our solutions for 23 years. To learn more about our client portal, consumer payment portal, document management system and our Penetration Testing services log onto www.appliedinnovationinc.com or contact Joe Luna, Technical Sales Representative, at [email protected]
