How can a collection agency win more placements from the clients it already has?

How do creditors decide how much each agency gets?

A creditor with more than one agency on a book usually runs some form of champion and challenger. IC System, a collection agency that takes part in these models, describes it in a 2023 article: placements are split between competing agencies, each is scored, and the shares are reallocated, which it recommends doing every quarter. Its example scorecard measures collections (dollars collected divided by dollars placed) separately from service: account audits, call reviews and complaints.

Government programmes work the same way at scale. The Department of Education’s agency programme, as insideARM reported it in 2010, allocated placements in proportion to a weighted performance score in which dollars collected carried the most weight. The University of Arizona’s 2026 collection RFP says placements with each awarded agency will be decided on performance.

The other lever is the recall. A 2009 insideARM piece setting out practices drawn from the consultancy Kaulkin Ginsberg says strong recovery managers recall accounts not collected after a set period and place them with a competing agency. For an agency, that means every batch is a chance to win share and a chance to lose it. How debt buyers allocate accounts covers the buyer’s side in more detail.

What does the scorecard actually reward?

Dollars collected per dollar placed, on like accounts, compared batch by batch. Experian, which sells collections analytics, makes the point in a 2012 post: a recovery rate across a whole inventory misleads, so it compares each monthly batch placed with competing agencies, over the whole life of the batch.

Compliance and service sit beside it. In our view they work as a gate: a poor complaint record can cost share on its own, while a good one rarely wins share by itself.

Where can an agency pull ahead?

Dollars collected per account placed is two numbers multiplied together:

• Right-party contacts per account placed. How many consumers you reach. It depends on phone data, dialer capacity, contact strategy and the rules on how often you may call. In our view reach is where large agencies look most alike, because the data, dialers and contact rules are open to all of them.
• Dollars collected per right-party contact. What each conversation turns into. It depends on who takes the call, how the offer is put, and how promises are followed up.

The second number is decided on your floor. Collectors convert at different rates on different kinds of account (why collectors convert differently), so the same team on the same batch collects more or less depending on which collector gets which consumer. RPC conversion explains how to measure it, and more RPCs or better conversion? compares the two levers.

In a live test at a North American collection agency, a telecom book of 170,000 accounts was split 50/50 at random before the first call. The half matched by BestPair collected $98.76 per account reached against $79.17 on the usual process, 24.7% more, with the same collectors and the same accounts. One book in one month, not a forecast for any other floor (the case study). On a client’s scorecard, a gap of that kind is the difference between being the champion and being the challenger.

How do you show a client you deserve more share?

In our view, four habits help:

1. Report in the client’s terms. Use their scorecard measure and their batch dates, not your own summary.
2. Split your result. Show right-party contacts per account and dollars per contact, so the client sees whether your edge is reach or conversion. Conversion is harder for a competitor to copy.
3. Ask for a fair comparison. Like accounts placed in the same weeks, ideally at random. Winning a split placement and how to prove a change worked set out what fair means.
4. Offer a test on more volume. If you are ahead on a small share, propose a larger share for one quarter with the same measure, so the client can see whether the gap holds. How to show results to a client covers how to state it.

Share is lost the same way it is won. Why creditors move accounts lists the warning signs, and how larger creditors find a new agency shows why most new placements go to agencies a creditor already knows.

Sources

• Champion-Challenger Collections Model: IC System, a collection agency, 2023.
• Dept. of ED Releases Important Collection Performance Report: insideARM, April 2010.
• Recovery Management: Best Practices for Managing Collection Agencies: insideARM, Paul Legrady, February 2009, practices drawn from Kaulkin Ginsberg.
• Best practices for improving agency performance: Experian, 2012.
• University of Arizona, Arizona State University and Northern Arizona University, Debt Collection RFP (2026): placements decided on performance.