Mastering Collections Negotiation: How One Lender Transformed its Repayment Success

An online lender struggling with low promise-to-pay rates partnered with Bridgeforce to design a targeted collections negotiation training program, resulting in a 30% boost in promise-to-pay rates and a 42% increase in dollars collected.

Negotiating in debt collection calls is both an art and a science. Call center agents must find repayment solutions that work for both the customer and the lender, requiring a balance of empathy, strong communication, and effective hardship programs.

One online lender recognized that its agents were struggling to successfully negotiate payments and enroll customers into its card payment program. To enhance agent effectiveness and improve collections performance, the lender sought Bridgeforce’s 25 years of collections expertise.

Bridgeforce worked closely with the lender to design a sustainable training program that empowered agents with the skills needed to drive better outcomes. As a result, the lender achieved a 30% improvement in its promise-to-pay rate and a 42% increase in past-due dollars collected.

Designing a Right-Fit Collections Negotiation Training Course

Identifying Content Needs

The lender had limited off-the-shelf materials and minimal internal training support. Then, to address the gap, Bridgeforce collaborated with key stakeholders to create a customized training solution. Through an onsite current-state discovery session, we assessed content development needs, which informed the high-level design, training plan, and post-training action plan.

Developing Resources

With a clear understanding of the lender’s needs, we developed a formal training syllabus and supporting materials, including:

• Facilitator guides
• Participant workbooks
• Negotiation training modules covering key objectives, timing, and best practices
• Reference guides for effective probing questions

Additionally, we scripted and pre-recorded a series of mock calls to demonstrate effective and ineffective negotiation techniques, providing agents with tangible examples to learn from.

Bridgeforce and Provana’s Advanced Collections Performance Management, featuring speech mnalytics, makes pulling sample calls easier than ever. With built-in speech analytics, your agents’ calls are automatically monitored, recorded, and scrubbed for PII. Power up your agent coaching with real examples directly from your agents. Learn more about Advanced Collections Performance Management here.

Ensuring Organizational Buy-In on Training Approach

To ensure alignment and compliance, we partnered with the lender’s legal and compliance teams to gain approval for all training materials before implementation.

Hybrid Training

We delivered a comprehensive 24-hour training program, conducted both on-site and virtually. Training included:

• Two separate collection agent classes
• Two “train-the-trainer” sessions to enable internal trainers to continue education efforts and sustain the results

Following the training, Bridgeforce provided ongoing weekly support for a month to facilitate a seamless transition of coaching responsibilities back to the lender’s internal team.

Improved Collections Performance and Increased Revenue

By equipping agents with enhanced negotiation skills and a structured coaching framework, the lender achieved measurable improvements:

• 30% increase in promise-to-pay rate
• 38% increase in dollars collected per right-party contact
• 42% increase in past-due dollars collected
• $385,000 increase in true net dollars back to the firm each month

With an improved collections negotiation strategy, the lender was able to enhance performance and provide better customer outcomes.

Bridgeforce Helps Lenders Improve Repayment Success with Collections Negotiation Training

Over 85% of our team has worked on the client-side of financial services. We understand the nuances behind collections negotiation. We can provide your organization with experience-backed training that will help your agents connect with customers and find amenable repayment solutions.

For more information on these services, visit our collections consulting page. Reach out to us to get started.