Why Your Business Needs An International Collection Agency
Most smart business owners and managers realize that hiring a collection agency is always a good decision, but they may not realize that if you have international accounts, hiring an international collection agency is a must-do. The reasons to hire an international collection agency are similar to the reasons to hire an agency in general, but magnified.
The main reason for hiring a collection agency at all is because they are more likely to recover debt than you are and because it frees you and your staff up to continue business-building activities rather than collections activities which you’re not trained for, suited to or inclined towards.
Add in the factors unique to international collections like language problems, time zones and laws unique to each country in which you operate and this effect is magnified four times. Getting recovery from international debtors is a great deal more difficult than regular debt collection, which is difficult enough.
An international collection agency should be called in right away so the debt can be promptly recovered in a professional manner. You’ll get more money back more quickly this way. In addition, you don’t have to pay up front for the services so it won’t affect your cash flow, and you won’t give your own staff the impossible task of dealing with unfamiliar languages, culture, and laws in an inconvenient time zone.
An international collection agency is more suited to these activities than an ordinary local one because a local collection agency will be hardly better suited to handle these issues than you yourself are. An international collection agency will employ people who speak the local languages and understand local customs. They will also operate during the best hours for collections calls, as opposed to people who live halfway across the world. In addition, they’ll be cognizant of local laws in a way you just can’t do from another country.
Say you’re collecting in Asia. Even if the national agency has people on staff who are fluent in some of the major Asian languages, like Japanese, Korean or Cantonese, they will not necessarily be familiar with the laws and customs of each individual country, and even if by some chance they are, they will still have trouble being effective due to the major time zone differences unless they employ people around the clock.
Also, an international collection agency can work out favorable terms for you due to exchange rates. If they’re working in an area where the currency is very strong, like Europe, they may be able to work out an arrangement where the debtor feels they’re getting a break because the face value of the debt is lower, but you win out in the end due to exchange rates.
Finally, an international collection agency will be much more equipped to locate a debtor if they are hiding their address or phone number as well. A private investigator within a particular region will be licensed to operate and have access to records from that region. A local investigator within the US will be able to find someone in New Jersey within minutes, but in New Zealand, good luck. This may be the number one reason to hire an international collection agency over a local one.
