What data does a collection agency need to provide for agent matching?
Agent matching needs four files: call records and payments keyed to the collector and the account, a collector roster, and account details such as balance, days delinquent, placement date, consumer age band, state and ZIP code. Up to 24 months of history if you have it. The data is pseudonymised only. BestPair never asks for consumer names, Social Security numbers, phone numbers, email or street addresses, or bank or card details.
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The results file you already produce
Your floor already records every call result and every payment, for its own reporting and for its clients. Agent matching works from those same records. BestPair calls this predictive pairing: using your own history to decide which collector works each account. What it needs is a record of who called which account, what happened, and which accounts paid.
The data comes as four CSV files and an outcome-codes list that flags which codes are right-party contacts and which are promises to pay, all keyed to your own IDs:
| File | What is in it |
|---|---|
| Call records | Collector ID, account ID, date and time, outcome code and talk time |
| Payments | Account ID, payment date and amount |
| Collector roster | Collector ID, start date and end date, and team or site |
| Account details | Balance, days delinquent, placement date, consumer age band, state, ZIP code and campaign |
BestPair maps your own outcome codes, so your floor does not change how it codes calls.
How much history
Up to 24 months, if you have it. More history gives a steadier read of each collector.
History is only useful where the collector is recorded on every call. Some floors find their older records kept only successful calls, or dropped the collector ID after a system change. Leave those months out. The model learns as much from contacts that ended without a payment as from those that paid, so it needs both.
What is not needed
Personal data is pseudonymised only. BestPair never asks for consumer names, Social Security numbers, phone numbers, email or street addresses, or bank or card details. Call recordings, scripts and notes stay with the agency too. Account IDs are your own, so BestPair cannot tell who a consumer is. The roster is data about your own collectors, and BestPair processes that as well. If a file arrives with anything extra, BestPair deletes it and asks for a resend. More on personal details and where the matching runs.
Is our data good enough?
This is the question agencies ask most after seeing the file list. Five checks answer most of it:
- Every call record names the collector who took it. Without the collector, nothing can be matched. Check this one first.
- Outcomes include the calls that did not pay. The history needs the right-party contacts that ended with no payment or arrangement, not just the ones that paid.
- Every account has at least a balance, days delinquent and a state. A floor that knows only a phone number and a balance has nothing to tell one account from another. Which account details help.
- Calls and payments share an account ID, or can be linked through one.
- The floor has 25 or more collectors working the same kinds of accounts, so there are enough collectors to compare.
Messy formats, odd outcome codes and a few missing fields are normal and can be worked around. Whether your own collectors differ enough to be worth pairing is a separate question, and the Floor Assessment answers it on your data (see a sample report).
How the data arrives
By encrypted SFTP to a folder BestPair provides, never by email. Other routes, including an API, can be agreed; an API is the long-term setup. Your IT effort is close to none, because the files already exist. What it takes from you is one named data contact on your side.
BestPair checks the files within 2 business days. When they pass, that date is the Data Received Date, and the Floor Assessment report is due 4 weeks later. Once pairing is live in Stage 2, data arrives daily and a daily assignment file comes back. The model is updated about once a month, weekly in the first couple of weeks. What it takes from your IT team.
Common follow-up questions
Do we need demographic data about the consumers?
You need account details, not personal profiles. The minimum is balance, days delinquent and state on every account. A consumer age band helps if you already hold one, but a floor can start without it.
Our call results and payments live in different systems. Is that a problem?
No. Send them as separate files and they are joined on the account ID. If the two systems use different IDs for the same account, add a column that links them.
What if we have less than 24 months of history?
Send what you have. A shorter history gives each collector fewer contacts on each kind of account to learn from, so it takes more care to read. The Floor Assessment says plainly whether there is enough.
How often does the data need to arrive once pairing is live?
Daily. In Stage 2 your files arrive every day and a daily assignment file comes back. The model itself is updated about once a month, weekly in the first couple of weeks.
What it could mean on your floor
Two minutes
Watch the explainer
What your dialer does with the next account, what pairing changes, and what the Floor Assessment measures. With captions.
Watch the videoYour floor
Try the calculator
Four numbers off your dialer and collections reports give an illustrative figure for your floor. It is at best informed guesswork until your own history is measured.
Open the calculatorA live test
Read the case study
170,000 telecom accounts split at random before the first call, and how the result was counted.
Read it
Would it be a bad idea to spend 45 minutes finding out?
If your shop does not qualify, you will hear it on the call, not after you have paid for a report.
Book a 45-minute fit call