Audio By Vocalize
Walk into any credit department at month-end, and the scene is familiar: a controller juggling between three phones, ageing reports piling up, and the quiet frustration of chasing money that left the business long ago.
We call it “collections.” We fund it, staff it, and measure it — yet we have the sequence wrong. After years of recovering debt for a living, I have learned this truth: by the time an account reaches my desk, the outcome was usually decided much earlier.
The money was not lost when the customer defaulted; it was lost when they were on boarded, when the scoring engine reviewed their Know Your Customer (KYC) and said “yes.” Everything after that is merely the bill arriving.
Put plainly, your receivables and loan book are shaped less by how hard you collect and more by the scoring engine you use to onboard. Get that gate right and recovery becomes easier. Get it wrong, and no collections army will save you.
