Profits on Call

Lance Manning, regional manager of the GreenPoint Credit Collections Call Center, oversaw the installation of a CRM system that has achieved a 300 percent return on investment. He recently spoke with CRM Senior Editor Jerry Rosa on his strategy for success. CRM: What was the main problem for GreenPoint Credit? Lance Manning: We had agents spread over 40 locations; there was no way for me to see what they were doing. Our costs of doing business this way were high, and many of the delinquent accounts were slipping through our fingers. CRM: Why did you choose Concerto Software? Manning: I was looking for a workhorse. Some of the other competitors had too many bells and whistles. We talked to a lot of people. Concerto, from a collections standpoint, could help me do what I needed to get done. Also, since I am not a programmer, I needed something that I could program without being technical. CRM: What was the strongest and most appealing feature of the Concerto solution? Manning: The first thing I liked was the online real-time feature. I can go into the system and see what all of my collectors are doing, if they are on the phone, if they are typing in notes after the phone calls. And I can listen to them while they are on the calls. This is important, because if they need help or coaching I can talk right into their ear set and guide them without the customer even knowing I am there. CRM: What is one of the features of the Unison solution that makes your life easier? Manning: One of the best features is one in which Unison will leave an automatic message if [it reaches an answering machine]. This saves us a lot of time, and the agent can work on another call instead of wasting time leaving a message. CRM: What was one of the big ROI payoffs? Manning: We were able to reduce the staff from 40 to 25. That's a 60 percent reduction in our collection workforce. CRM: Overall, how does this solution tie into your CRM strategy? Manning: Our strategy is to touch all our customers. The ones who have delinquent accounts are still our customers. This enables us to have a better mechanism in place to maintain the relationship so they can honor their loans.