Debt collection has always been a linear model, starting with face-to-face contact in the early days and eventually transitioning to today’s call center-based industry. This old line of thinking is being rendered obsolete by technology, which is driving a shift to multi-channel communication. Traditional contact strategies are being supplemented by text, email, and chat. Sadly, few in our industry are harnessing technology to reach customers through their preferred platform.

There’s an app for everything and young adults are accustomed to operating through the screen. MRS Executive Vice President of Information Technology Eric Pili says, “From a technology standpoint, collections will become expansively more self-service. Younger generations are tech savvy. Phone calls and business hours are going to be a thing of the past. Communications will shift toward text messages, chats, self-help portals, virtual assistants and web apps.”

The shift towards multi-channel will open up many different pathways for people to communicate with companies and pay their debts. MRS understands the importance of this change in the industry. Chief Customer Officer Chris Repholz says, “We’ve already seen a number of positive changes since we’ve launched our multi-channel strategy. Individuals who have consistently ignored telephone calls and ‘snail mail’ have responded positively to email and texts.”

Legislation remains ambiguous because the verbiage is outdated and fails to account for rapid technological advances. Even with this added challenge, MRS distinguishes itself. Repholz says, “Since we use compliance as a strategy for our phone based work, we decided that the same approach will work well with digital channels and we set out to create a multi-channel solution that is compliant with the FDCPA and the TCPA. The industry cannot continue to be telephone focused and must keep up with customer contact preferences, but do it in a lawful and compliant manner.”

Omni-channel communication is the future. MRS wants to offer customers many choices through which to be contacted. Repholz says, “MRS spends a good deal of time thinking about how innovative strategies and solutions will allow us to deliver better results than our competitors. In fact, this type of thinking led to the creation of a virtual collection agent that uses voice recognition and machine learning software, so if you call us but don’t want to speak with an agent, you can still make a payment in a totally self-serve manner! We also understand that market leading clients who embrace this type of technology and innovation will gravitate toward companies with a pioneering and creative approach to the industry. But most importantly, we believe that using technology to deliver a compliant and more customer-focused experience to consumers is the right thing to do for everyone involved.”

Although obstacles still exist, MRS stays ahead of the technological curve. Repholz says, “There is no question in our minds that a multi-channel approach is the future of the industry.” Accordingly, MRS innovates and refines its approach so that the customer and client are thoroughly satisfied. The debt collection industry stands on the precipice of great change and while business and legislation stand at the edge, MRS takes the technological leap into the future.

For too long the consumer finance sector was dominated by men. The “old boys club” was closed and inaccessible. Fearless women have broken down this barrier and are growing their numbers. According to UC Davis, women only make up about 18% of jobs in the financial industry and Catalyst reports that only 58 fortune 500 companies have a female CFO. While at a glance these numbers are not extremely encouraging, the precedent that the women behind the statistics set is monumental.

Culture is a buzzword that is often overused. Businesses everywhere are focusing on creating a corporate culture conducive to meaningful work by satisfied employees. But why is culture so important? Chief Operating Officer Jim Beck says, “The culture in an organization impacts all aspects of a company, including productivity, retention, and innovation.”

It’s no secret that MRS operates according to family values. The company, founded by brothers, Saul and Jeff Freedman, carries such principles into every aspect of the business. Consequently, each new hire that walks through the building is invited into the family. Open arms and overwhelming welcome are just pieces of the puzzle that differentiate MRS and make the company such a positive work environment. In fact, Jeff Freedman greets every single new training class at the Cherry Hill headquarters and operations leaders do the same in Ohio and Alabama.

Beck says, “There are so many employees that have been here for 5, 10 and 20 years. You don’t get that tenure without a strong culture. I would say that the culture here is about supporting each other, pushing each other to do better, having a strong performance, and having fun.”

Retaining employees benefits a company financially and culturally. According to the Social Market Foundation, happy employees are found to be 20% more productive than their counterparts. Additionally, a strong corporate culture promoting a positive work environment could see up to 37% increase in sales. Chief Personnel Officer Regina Weir says, “An employee’s work environment directly affects their job satisfaction and the quality of their daily production. A happy employee is a more productive employee and MRS strives to understand the evolving needs of its people in addition to letting them know that their voice is important to us.”

An employee’s hard work never goes unnoticed. MRS recognizes day to day and formal achievements in the call center ranging from a call that yielded a large collection to ribbons for prolonged call excellence. Today, the call center is full of cubicles adorned with different awards as the agents proudly display their ability to produce outstanding quality, month after month. The company also engages employees and challenges all to think outside the box. The yield of creativity is great; Beck says, “In addition to the impacts to our employees’ performances, MRS also has a very supportive culture for new ideas and creative solutions. This has led to technological improvements, process performance improvements, and financial performance improvements through ideas that have come from all parts of the organization.”

A strong corporate culture does not just appear- it takes time to nurture and grow. Over the 27 years in the business, the MRS family culture attitude has developed a fiercely competitive, caring, and innovative company.

Debt collection agencies, like many companies, house sensitive data. Storing information assets requires protection from prospective and opportunistic attackers. Michael Meyer, Chief Risk and Chief Security Officer at MRS, understands how essential it is to secure information and defend against bad actors.

In cybersecurity, the standard philosophy for protecting data is called “defense in depth.” This philosophy, also known as the Castle Approach, is a layered defense system. Information is surrounded in varied protective defenses with the objective of ensuring safety. This approach needs to be expanded because, as Meyer says, “There is no one tool or strategy that can possibly defend against every type of attack. That’s why a passive defense in depth with multiple layers all the way down through a company is now just the first step in a company’s security plan.”

Despite extensive safety measures, attackers are relentless. Meyer says, “The attacker only has to be right once, whereas the company defending always has to be one hundred percent right. Obviously those types of odds are weighed in the attacker’s favor. The way that companies can even their odds and fight back is to change their focus. Businesses have to take a balanced approach and assume that attackers will get in and additionally focus on preventing them from getting information out.”

As technology constantly evolves, so too does cybersecurity. In order to guard against the continual barrage of attackers, Meyer stresses the necessity of regularly updating tools and frequently improving defenses at all levels. Stagnancy is the enemy of secure assets. Citing the sports adage Meyer says, “The best defense is a good offense.”

A single data breach is often fatal. MRS recognizes the significance of security in a digital world fraught with attackers and defends accordingly. Meyer says, “The best cybersecurity is preventive in nature. The most important change that companies need to make now is protecting what goes out just as much as what gets in. An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.” Carrying this sentiment in mind, MRS prioritizes security and structures its array of defenses to ensure the utmost protection of all assets handled.

~~MRS BPO, LLC Acquires Alabama-based Vantage Sourcing
Cherry Hill, New Jersey, January 3, 2018.
New Jersey-based debt collection agency MRS BPO, LLC, one of the country’s premiere accounts receivable management firms, announced that it has acquired Vantage Sourcing, a call center company focused in collections and customer service, located in Dothan County, Alabama. The purchase will enable MRS continue to expand through additional seat capacity and new client vertical industries.

“Acquiring a quality organization like Vantage helps to forward our growth objectives and offer additional services,” said Chief Customer / Growth Officer Chris Repholz. “The integration of the two companies will begin immediately and clients of both companies will continue to receive the great quality and results to which they’re accustomed.”

Vantage Sourcing was founded in 2004 by Scott Stanford and Derrick Willman and has been an active employer in Dothan since that time. “The Dothan area has a population that is eager for full time jobs which offer benefits and advancement opportunities,” commented Co-CEOs Saul and Jeff Freedman. “Our intention is to become an employer of choice in the area and we greatly look forward to making a positive impact in the community.”

The acquisition provides MRS with a third domestic contact center location with 200+ seats and customer service clients that complement its collections business. “We are very excited about Vantage Sourcing becoming part of the MRS family,” said Vantage CEO Scott Stanford. “We have similar cultures and I know that Dothan is going to appreciate the new jobs and career growth that MRS will bring as part of this acquisition.”

ABOUT MRS BPO, LLC
MRS BPO, LLC is a full service accounts receivable management firm headquartered in Cherry Hill, New Jersey. The company’s unique combination of experience, technology, and compliance management processes allows them to provide industry-leading debt recovery solutions while enhancing their client’s brand and reputation. For more information on MRS BPO, LLC, visit them online at http://www.mrsbpo.com.

~~June 15, 2017

MRS BPO LLC Executives Speak at Inside ARM’s First Party Summit

Two members of the executive team at New Jersey based MRS BPO LLC, one of the country’s premier accounts receivable management firms, were featured speakers at Inside ARM’s Third Annual First Party Summit in June.

On the first day, Chief Customer Officer, Chris Repholz, led a session with client Eric Laundree of Elevate, titled The Importance of Matching Client Culture with Vendor Culture When Selecting an Outsourced Partner, providing the attendees with a list of areas in which they should focus when selecting new suppliers.

On the final day of the conference, Chief Compliance & Security Officer, Michael Meyer was joined by Brian Albertson of TechLock Inc., in an informative talk called The 30 Security Questions That Every Senior Manager Should Know. This topic provided questions and the “best” answers for security questions that should be scrutinized on audits and RFPs.

“Inside ARM has done a great job in organizing and expanding a conference focused solely on first party servicing, which is in a fast growth stage in our industry,” said Repholz. “This summit was a terrific place for suppliers and creditors to meet, discuss important issues and explore solutions and we look forward to continued involvement.”

ABOUT MRS BPO, LLC
MRS BPO, LLC is a full service accounts receivable management firm based in Cherry Hill, New Jersey. The company’s unique combination of experience, technology, and compliance management processes allows them to provide industry-leading debt recovery solutions while enhancing their client’s brand and reputation. For more information on MRS BPO, LLC, visit them online at http://www.mrsbpo.com.

~~Cherry Hill, New Jersey, May 5, 2017

MRS BPO, LLC, an industry leader in financial services, healthcare, cable, utilities and telecommunications debt recovery is happy to announce the addition of Kimberly Summerlot as the company’s new Vice President of Business Development. Kimberly brings with her twenty years of call center and financial recoveries experience, specializing in utilities, healthcare, and financial services.

“MRS is very pleased to have Kim join our Business Development team. Not only does she possess more than a decade of sales experience in collections, covering a multitude of verticals, she also has worked in collections operations,” said Chris Repholz, Chief Customer and Growth Officer of MRS BPO. “Kim is a well-rounded collections professional who will fit very well within our culture.”

“MRS has an outstanding reputation and a record of high quality solutions and compliance combined with strategic and successful collections,” said Summerlot. “MRS’s commitment to their clients and customers, as well as their employees made this opportunity the right fit for me.”

Founded in 1991, MRS has served the accounts receivable management needs of companies within the Healthcare, Banking, Financial, Government, Student Loans, Telecommunications, and Utility sectors for 26 years.

ABOUT MRS BPO, LLC
MRS BPO, LLC is a full service accounts receivable management firm based in Cherry Hill, New Jersey. The company’s unique combination of experience, technology, and compliance management processes allows them to provide industry-leading debt recovery solutions while enhancing their client’s brand and reputation. For more information on MRS BPO, LLC, visit them online at http://www.mrsbpo.com.