edens samThe common skip trace practice many third-party agencies follow after loading a new placement file is to address skip trace, phone number skip trace, bankruptcy skip trace, deceased skip trace, and credit score. Most collection professionals are well versed on this now monotonous routine. All agencies do it. The difference lies in how the return data is evaluated, captured, and embedded into the daily workflow for managing the inventory. However, there are some other, unconventional skip tracing services and often, they will provide some very revealing information. This information may be just enough to separate you from the competition. I would like to detail three unconventional skip tracing services and more importantly, ideas for how to manage them in your receivables management software.

Possible Incarceration

You may eventually discover a consumer is incarcerated over the course of working the account but have you considered running a skip trace for incarceration before any effort goes into contacting the consumer or sending a letter? Executing this skip trace and identifying a consumer is incarcerated will allow your representatives to focus on accounts that are more collectible. The possible incarceration skip trace should be scheduled one of two ways. First, the request can be automated to run with your normal skip trace service requests (address, phone, bankruptcy, deceased, credit score). Alternatively, you have your regularly scheduled requests run first and then based on those results, segment the ideal consumers for a possible incarceration skip trace. For example, if you receive a return that a consumer is deceased or has a credit score less than 400, your automated workflow may be set up to automatically close the account. In those cases, your skip tracing automation should bypass that consumer altogether for the possible incarceration scrub.

When receiving a hit for incarceration, some decisions need to be made. Most often, a release date (if applicable) is provided with the incarceration hit. Depending on the duration of the incarceration, you may option to close the account and re-open it immediately after the release date. On the other hand, you may just want to close the account and archive it. Either way, let your system handle it with built-in automation.

Possible Litigious Debtor

The litigious debtor skip trace could save thousands of dollars in legal costs. This may be one of the most fascinating services available these days. A returned hit on this service may indicate you are facing a consumer who has filed one or several lawsuits against agencies. It exists because consumer lawsuits against agencies and first parties are on the rise. Furthermore, consumer initiated lawsuits are steadily increasing because more and more consumers are becoming well educated on the FDCPA and other federal or state regulation.

Unlike the possible incarceration skip trace, you may want to set up workflow to run the possible litigious debtor skip trace right away. If a hit is returned, most agencies establish rules in the software to immediately flag and close the account in an effort to eliminate any contact whatsoever. When going this route, utilize workflow or other automation to close the account, remove it from any dialing queues, stop any other skip tracing efforts, halt all contact attempts, and flag the consumer so it is understood to steer clear of this account.

Property

This skip tracing service is a fun one and can arm your representatives with some very valuable information prior to contacting the consumer. The property skip trace will inform you if the consumer has recently purchased, leased, or somehow acquired new property. A house, condo, and land are all property examples. This information is especially valuable when a representative is working a consumer who indicates they are on a tight budget or simply does not have the financial resources to repay the debt.

As for automating this service, it is best to send the request after your first blast of skip tracing. You will want to carefully segment and select the consumers you want for the property skip trace. Construct the workflow to select consumers with a valid phone number and address, populated with full SSN, an outstanding balance that justifies the property skip trace, and a moderate to high credit score. Unlike possible incarceration and litigious debtor, turning on monitoring is a great idea for this service. This will allow your skip trace provider to continuously seek property hits for the consumer, rather than a one-time scrub, and notify you when a new hit becomes available. With this information, a representative can easily counter an excuse-ridden consumer by simply questioning his financial position since he has recently purchased a new property.

Before jumping right into unconventional skip tracing, you must first develop guidelines for isolating and marking the consumers for these different services, for identifying them when hits are received, and for the special handling they require. Regardless of the decisions for implementing unconventional skip tracing or managing the returns, store the data in your software or data warehouse and make the process automated in your software by including it in your everyday workflow.


Sam Edens has been with Emprise Technologies since 2006 and is currently serving as Vice President. Prior to his time with Emprise, Sam designed and developed performance and flow management software for UPS.