Over his many years in collection training, including as head of training at D&B's Receivable Management Service (RMS), at the time, the largest commercial collection agency in the world, Zimmer developed a scorecard to help quantify and objectively determine which collectors are really doing the job, which need additional training, and those who simply are not cut out for collections.

Zimmer's collector scorecard uses the following metrics:

• • • Aging and/or tracking monthly dollar objective or goal.
    • Dollars collected expressed in total dollars collected and/or using a comparative DSO.
    • Aging, not only of the collector's unit but how long has the collector had the account, including how many calls, e-mails, letters that have been used to qualify the customer's intentions.
    • Has the collector secured a promise of full payment or a REASONABLE payment plan?
    • Are there any items in dispute and can a settlement or adjustment be reached?
    • Recovery Rates - The dollar amounts collected divided by the total amount in each unit's inventory.
    • Number of calls per day, week, or month.
    • Telephone monitoring - Is the collector abiding by all State and Federal laws?
    • The number and severity of complaints
    • Account Audits - Have calls been made when necessary and results and comments entered into the system?

"Sure, there are other ways to measure collector performance," he says. "Specific dollar objectives for a particular period are one way. Tallying the percent of dollars collected to dollars received (aka recovery rate) is another way. And of course, DSO. But why not combine everything you know into a much more comprehensive scorecard?"

"A collection scorecard is a tool to help you manage the performance of your collectors," asserts Zimmer. "You should use a separate one for each of your collectors. To aid its effectiveness, you should typically construct it in spreadsheet format (he prefers Excel) and have a workbook for each collector in your group. Worksheets can be linked to roll-up to year-to-date figures and include a spreadsheet for each month."

According to Zimmer, those supervisors should complete the scorecard and review the performance with each collector on the staff by the third working day of each month. Only with this systematic and disciplined approach, can you manage your people objectively.

Engaging in this systematically helps you uncover strengths and weaknesses, determine trends, understand early who needs additional coaching, and helps you make informed and objective decisions. Finally, it reinforces decisions regarding training, corrective action and, possibly, termination.

"The scorecard is all about helping you be a better manager," he shares. "Without it, you can't possibly understand why things are happening, or exactly who needs kudos and who needs assistance. And of course, it makes for better collectors as well. It's really about whether you want to objective or subjective in your analysis of performance."

The data will tell you, specifically, what each collector did in the most recent month, enable you to compare to prior months, give you year-to-date data, and help you and the collector see trends.

Zimmer has seen all types in collection, and emphasizes how important it is to be able to identify collectors he refers to as your "players" (your "go-to collectors), who your "posers" are, who talk a good game, as well as other critical data such as those who may make a lot of calls but bring in little money and those who have the potential to become "players."

"It's the best way I know to understand month-to-month and year-to-date trends," he says, and it is a "living document." You should make periodic adjustments to enhance its value as you monitor and learn new things.

"Every organization is different, so each scorecard should be tailored to serve your own needs," Zimmer concludes.