Every collections function works the top of the ageing report and quietly abandons the tail. Not because the tail is uncollectable, but because there are only so many hours. This recipe takes the whole list, phones the part nobody gets to, has the conversation, and writes every outcome back where the next person can see it.
What the agent does, in order
The same approach your best collector would take, on every account rather than the first twenty, by whichever channel that customer actually responds to.
Pull the ageing
Takes the current ageing straight from the ledger, not a spreadsheet that was accurate on Monday.
Work the whole list
Phones the accounts a human never reaches, with each customer's history and prior promises already loaded.
Record the promise
Captures what was actually agreed, read back and confirmed, rather than a note someone meant to write up.
Write back
Promises, dates and outcomes land against the account so tomorrow's follow-up starts from what happened.
Why it pays
The tail of the ageing report is where the recoverable money hides.
Coverage, not triage
Every account gets worked — a call where that is right, an email or SMS where it is not. Collections stops being a function of how many hours a person had.
Promises are tracked
A recorded promise is a follow-up the system will chase. A verbal one is a thing somebody forgot.
Your team does the hard ones
People spend their day on the disputes and relationships, not on dialling and leaving voicemails.