How compliance can rewrite the narrative
The collections industry has been understood to be aggressive in the past. Bad actors shape the predominant image of what a collector is and does. However, over the last decade, a shift has occurred—more and more debt collections companies are shedding that misconception due to their renewed focus on compliance and customer experience.
Chief Risk and Innovation Officer Michael Meyer said, “Being compliant ensures better customer and client experience. It reduces risk in operations. Compliance is the key to making the business run.”
While this approach may be new to some agencies, since day one, MRS has held firm on the concept of “compliance as strategy,” a value which has instilled the utmost attentiveness in agents when interacting with customers. Despite comprehensive training, guidelines, and hardworking employees, misconceptions about the industry still prevail.
Meyer said, “It’s difficult to change the narrative when it comes to debt collectors. Many consumers don’t know how heavily regulated we are. We have federal, state, client, and internal requirements that we have to follow. It’s critically important to have these levels govern compliance and what agencies can do.”
With the existing rules and the CFPB’s upcoming additions, the collections industry remains a heavily regulated sphere. All these laws are in place to protect the consumer and reduce the amount of bad actors that still operate. Maintaining compliance at all times and making the necessary changes as new rules are announced, MRS prioritizes the consumer’s experience.
In order to succeed in the collections industry, compliance cannot be overlooked. Meyer offered an apt metaphor for compliance’s role in a business: “Compliance provides the guardrails which allows the car, which is operations, to drive down the road smoothly. Compliance functions as the surrounding pieces, the stop signs, the speed limits, the lines, so everything else can operate without difficulty.”
As consumers have more positive interactions with compliance first agencies, they will reevaluate their misconceptions. The change won’t be overnight, but incremental. Little by little, compliance will rewrite the debt collections narrative.