Should a broken promise go back to the collector who took it?

The case for the same collector

• Context. The collector who took the promise heard why the consumer could pay that amount on that date, and what got in the way before. A new collector starts from notes.
• The commitment was made to a person. People keep to what they have said to someone, the commitment principle in Robert Cialdini’s Influence. A follow-up from the person who heard the promise reminds the consumer of their own words. What the persuasion models say about collection calls.
• Accountability for the promise. If broken promises always leave a collector’s book, the collector bears none of the cost of a promise that was never going to hold. Keeping them makes the quality of each promise that collector’s problem.

The case for a fresh voice

• The first promise may have been the wrong one. A collector who took an amount the consumer could not pay may take the same amount again. A different collector may hear the situation differently and agree something the consumer can keep.
• The call may have gone badly. If the consumer felt pushed, a new person starts without that history.
• Fit. In our view collectors are stronger with some kinds of accounts than others, and the collector who happened to take the promise is not always the one who does best with that kind of account. Why collectors convert at different rates.
• Timing. Follow-ups work best close to the promise date, and the original collector may not be on shift then.

When to mark a promise broken

Settle this before deciding who follows up, and apply one rule to every collector. insideARM’s tip on promise-to-pay settings (2006) describes common practice in collection systems at the time:

• A shortfall tolerance. A payment just under the promised amount can still count as kept; the article says the tolerance was typically set at 90 to 95% of the promised amount, and does not apply when the payment falls below the minimum required.
• A grace period. The broken-promise flag set 3 to 5 days after the promise date if the money has not arrived.
• Follow-up timing. Contacts set for the day before the promise date, the day itself, and up to three days after.

Software differs. In Oracle’s collections documentation, a partial payment does not break an instalment until its due date passes unpaid, and one missed instalment breaks the whole agreement. Check what your own system does, then write the rule down.

Most follow-up calls count toward Regulation F’s call-frequency presumptions. The CFPB’s text of section 1006.14 presumes a collector complies if it calls a person about a debt no more than seven times in seven consecutive days, and not within seven days after a phone conversation about that debt. The 2006 follow-up pattern above predates Regulation F: a follow-up within seven days of a phone conversation about the debt, such as the call where the promise was taken, is presumed to violate the rule unless an exception applies. Your compliance team and counsel decide whether one does, and how the rule applies to your follow-up schedule.

How to decide on your own floor

Both sides have a point, and which one wins depends on your collectors and your paper. A test answers it:

1. Split broken promises at random as they are flagged: half go back to the collector who took them, half follow your other rule.
2. Run both in the same weeks, so the season and the placements hit both alike.
3. Score both on dollars collected per account over an agreed window after the promise broke, net of reversals, rather than on new promises taken.
4. Keep every account in its group until the window closes, even if a collector asks for it back.

Read the result by kind of account as well as overall, because the answer can differ from one kind to the next. How to prove a routing change worked covers the method in full, and how to calculate kept rate covers the denominators.

Sources

• insideARM, Promise to Pay: Parameter Settings A 2006 trade press tip on promise tolerances, broken-promise flags and follow-up timing.
• Oracle, Managing promise-to-pay agreements Collections software documentation on when an instalment promise counts as broken.
• CFPB, Regulation F section 1006.14 The regulator’s text of the rule on harassment and call frequency.
• CCW Digital community question on broken promises Where the question of the collector’s responsibility was asked.