How do I budget for agent matching next year?

The two costs

The extra is measured against a control group run in the same weeks. Accounts in scope are split at random, 80% allocated by BestPair and 20% left on your current routing, and the extra is how much more the BestPair group collects per account contacted, multiplied by the number of BestPair group accounts contacted. How agent matching is priced has the full terms.

For a budget, that means two kinds of number. The $15,000 and the $2,500 monthly minimum are known before you sign. Anything above the minimum is ten cents of each extra dollar measured against the control group, so it rises only when the extra does. While the credit lasts, fees above the minimum are set against it rather than paid again.

When the money moves

The timing follows the contract, not the calendar year, so map it onto your budget year before you sign.

1. Signature. The Floor Assessment fee is invoiced that day and paid before any data moves.
2. The report. Due four weeks after BestPair confirms in writing that your data is complete, then the readout.
3. Stage 2. Starts on the first day of the month after the readout, unless your agency opts out in writing within ten business days. If you opt out, nothing further is owed.
4. The first Stage 2 invoice. Arrives the month after Stage 2 starts, because fees are billed in arrears, with both groups’ results on it.

If your agency sets next year’s budget in the fourth quarter, the question for that round is which month you expect to sign. That decides which year carries the Floor Assessment fee, and how many months of Stage 2 the coming year holds.

Which budget line it tends to sit in

In our view it fits best in an operations or technology line, as a fixed first cost followed by a performance cost. There is no licence, no seats and nothing installed: the matching runs off-site at BestPair, and the Stage 2 fee follows a measured result.

Call Centre Helper’s guide to securing contact centre budget (2017) notes that licence fees and maintenance are typically classified as capital expenditure, while usage-based cloud costs are usually treated as operating expenditure. How your agency books BestPair’s fees is a question for your own finance team and accountant.

Build the case from your own numbers

A budget line needs a reason next to it. The business case for agent matching works it through: monthly collections on the campaigns in scope, lift levels you choose yourself, your agency’s share of the extra, and the fee. Two figures are worth putting in front of finance: the lift at which your share of the extra just covers the $2,500 minimum, and what each extra dollar leaves your agency above it.

Nobody can give you the lift before your history is measured. The calculator on the homepage is capped at 20% and is at best informed guesswork. Keep the low scenario low, and do not budget a vendor’s number as if it were yours. The Floor Assessment then gives an estimated range from up to 24 months of your own history, with a one-page Stage 2 business case, before you commit to Stage 2.

Call Centre Helper’s guide to building a business case (2016) gives advice that holds here: bring the finance team in early, plan around the financial cycles of the business, and count the hours someone will spend running the project, not only the price.

The internal effort to plan for

The IT effort is close to none: SFTP keys exchanged once, the exports your floor already runs, and in Stage 2 a daily assignment file to load. Beyond IT, plan for a named data contact who can answer questions within two business days in the weeks after signing, an operations owner who keeps assignments followed on the floor, and someone in finance who reads each month’s statement.

Who signs off

Operations, finance, compliance and counsel, IT and security, and any creditor client whose placement agreement requires it will each check something different before the owner signs. Who approves an agent matching pilot lists what each one looks for. In our view finance should see the budget lines and the measure together, since the Stage 2 fee is only as sound as the way the extra is counted.

If this year’s budget is already set

The Floor Assessment fee is one fixed amount, known in advance. In our view that can make it easier to fund from a discretionary or project line than an open-ended commitment would be. Stage 2 comes only after the readout, your agency can opt out of it within ten business days, and above the minimum its fee follows a measured extra.

Narrowing the scope does not lower the cost. You can start with one campaign, but the $15,000 fee is the same however many campaigns are listed, and a campaign added later needs its own Order Form and its own Floor Assessment. If budget is the constraint, in our view it is usually better to move the signing date than to cut the scope.

Throughout, BestPair changes only which collector works each account. It does not contact consumers, and it does not change offers, scripts, contact rules or call frequency. FDCPA, Regulation F and TCPA controls stay with your agency.

Sources

• How to Get Skilled in Creating a Business Case: Call Centre Helper, on involving finance early, planning around the financial cycle and counting the project’s costs.
• 11 Ways to Secure More Budget for Your Contact Centre: Call Centre Helper, including how licence and cloud costs are usually classified.
• BestPair’s Order Form and Standard Terms, as set out on the homepage and in how agent matching is priced.