Announcement

Collapse
No announcement yet.

Your Repossession Office

Collapse
X
Collapse
  •  

  • Your Repossession Office

    08yourrepossessionoffice01.jpg
    Operating A Professional Repossession Office

    No matter what happens in the field with your agents, your office will always be on the front line with the lenders. Your agents will rarely have interaction with your clients, unless a debtor calls the lender and puts the agent on the phone with the collector. The professionalism of your company will be revealed each day from the time the bell rings until quitting time. Your office will set the tone of your whole company. If they are sloppy and unprofessional, I promise you will lose business.

    When a client contacts you office, they need to know that they are calling a professional company and not just the “repo man” Even if you company is a small family run business, the lender should never feel that impression. They should not be able to tell the difference of calling your office or the office of a Fortune 500 company.

    You need to hire and train professional office staff that are capable of interacting with lenders that will be contacting your business. They need to be able to have the interpersonal communication skills to relate information about accounts accurately and efficiently. Your staff needs have phone etiquette, patience, computer skills as well as an ability to keep track of multiple accounts that your company is working. When a lender calls, they do not want to be on hold for hours, confused by updates that are inaccurate or lied to. Dishonesty is the one thing that will do irreparable damage to your company. I know that lenders can be overly persistent about their accounts, but is their job. Your job is to get their collateral secured, or at least have good information as to why it has not been picked up yet. If your office staff is on the ball and professional, then you have won the most of the battle already.


    08yourrepossessionoffice02.jpgHave The Essential Office Tools That You Need
    The second thing to running a successful office is to have updated equipment and technology. I understand that you are attached to that 1950’s manual typewriter, but it is time to move on! Your office should have up to date computers, software, fax machines, and phone systems. Always have plenty of toner for your fax machine and printers. Think about purchasing a back up fax machine. You will be embarrassed if a lender is trying to fax you orders and you have to tell him that you are out of toner or your fax machine is broken.

    Nothing irritates a client more than to be talking with someone in a repossession office and hear them shuffling through hundreds of papers to find an update or a condition report. If someone on your staff is going to be talking to lenders, then they need to have a computer and an efficient data base of all of the accounts that your company is running. However, it does no one any good to have an awesome data base of information that is not been updated. You need to have an employee entering new updates and condition reports every morning, so your staff is able to access that information form the data base when the client calls.

    Another thing that lenders will not tolerate is always getting voicemails. You need to purchase a phone system that will accommodate multiple lines and also roll over to available lines when others are busy. You need to have enough staff to keep up with the call volume that you have as well. You can gauge how many lines and how many employees that you need in your office by the average number of calls each day. If you have 30 messages on your voicemail every hour, then it is time to add staff and phone lines! Also, do not have a cell phone an office number. Nothing says that you unprofessional more than when you are on the phone with a lender in your truck and the girl working the driver though at Burger King asks if you want to upsize your order!

    Lastly, you need to have set office hours. You just can’t “shut the office down” because things are slow. You never can tell when your office will get busy. Or worse than that, the largest lender in the country calls your office to offer you a lucrative contract and they get a voice mail because you closed early. You also may want to consider your hours based on the location of the lenders that use you. If you have major clients on the East coast and the West coast, then you might want to open earlier and close later to accommodate them.

    I know all of these things can be expensive and we hate to spend money if we do not have to. All I can say is that if you spend your money wisely, it can and will make you money. You do not have to gout and buy ten computers and hire eight more people for your office. Hire more people and buy more office equipment as you need to.

    Please fell free to start a thread in the forum if you have any further information on this topic that you would like to share.
      Posting comments is disabled.

    Latest Articles

    Collapse

    • Repo Agents Hate To Door Knock
      by BRADMIN

      The Repo Man Is At the Door

      Nobody wants to door knock, they just want to steal the car. Repo agents always want more time to do a drive by and hope that the vehicle will eventual turn up. They do not want to scare the debtor into running or hiding the vehicle by tipping him off that he is up for repossession.

      There are several problems with that way of thinking. The first is that the vehicle is not showing anyhow and the second is that the debtor probably already knows...
      12-28-2018, 07:23 PM
    • Flacars con 2010
      by BRADMIN
      Education
      This was my first time to attend a FLACARS convention and I have to say I was impressed! Everything was first class from the food, to the resort, to the seminars. There were seminars on proposed Florida legislative changes, fleet safety operations and the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act. LPR technology was presented by two vendors and there was also a collateral remarketing seminar. The highlight of the conference was an awesome skip tracing seminar, which was taught by Michele...
      12-28-2018, 06:28 PM
    • Repossessions and Collateral Damage
      by BRADMIN

      Accidents Happen

      Repo agents are often dealing with volatile situations that put an enormous amount of stress on them. There are times when they are snatching a car from a tight space. Many times agents are driving at night and are sharing the road with sleepy drivers, drunk drivers and have their sight hindered by the darkness. If you are going to be in the repossessing business, then you must come to terms with the fact that accidents are going to happen. Collateral is going to get...
      12-28-2018, 06:25 PM
    • Handling Personal Property
      by BRADMIN
      Personal Property
      Repossession companies have to be careful with personal property that is found in the cars they pick up. If property is mishandled, damaged or lost, it could cost your company money. You need to make sure that you follow your state laws as well as the lender’s contractual agreement with you when it comes to personal property. You need to do a detailed inventory of all personal property found in the vehicle. Place all of the personal effects found in a cardboard box and label...
      12-28-2018, 06:23 PM
    • Give Back to the Community
      by BRADMIN

      Repossession Companies Can Donate To Many Worthy Causes

      I do no think that I can neglect this area in the writing of articles on how to build a successful repossession company. I truly believe the statement “what goes around comes around”. If you are a dirty player and always out to hurt people, you will get it paid back someday. Those paybacks can really hurt. Being a business owner is a big responsibility in more ways that one. Sure it is difficult to manage employees, keep your trucks...
      12-28-2018, 06:20 PM
    • Lenders and Their Recycled Repossession Orders
      by BRADMIN
      "Old Paper"
      Lenders have a tendency to pass old orders around to different auto repossession companies. Every veteran agent has been through it when they talk to a debtor and they hear “I told the other guy I would pay” or “Are you with – insert your competitor’s name here”. Immediately you know you have a repossession order in your hand that someone else has worked.

      I often wonder if the lenders do this to see if agents are working accounts or if they do not trust us....
      12-28-2018, 06:16 PM
    Working...
    X