mug_strausser

When it comes to training in the collection industry, I guess you could say that I have been around the block. Since around 1985 I have made a career out of consulting and training debt collection operations across the US and internationally. [I have attempted to leave a positive mark where I have spent time and I have perpetually absorbed ideas, concepts, programs and best practices, the result of the brilliant minds of countless industry professionals.]

No matter what part of the collection industry you may operate in, there is a very firm concept imbedded in the culture of our workplaces that training is essential and education should be a part of everyone’s work life. We presume as owners, operators, managers and trainers that the concepts we so strongly instill on our collection floors are understood, retained and incorporated into daily practice. Many benchmark their training off of industry leaders and recommendations from organizations like ACA International’s Campus ACA division. Much to our lament, we find that basic concepts are forgotten as staff members become ingrained in their daily routines.

With the arrival of the CFPB and the resulting focus on the need to educate, assess and entrench a critical focus on compliance on all levels of our firms, many collection enterprises have been scrambling to find the best resources available to fulfill this need. A little less than a year ago I had the good fortune to meet the CEO of a company called Learn.net and have been absolutely astounded by their product, Eterna, which offers a solid answer to our compliance education, assessment and retention concerns.

Special Note: I want to be clear to our readers that I am formally consulting with this corporation. I have never written about a particular product or company in my years with Collection Advisor but I feel the value of what Eterna has to offer our industry warrants an exception to this rule! And, in fact, I have been utilizing the system for over 6 months in my collection operation.

Eterna does more than just deliver compliance tests to your collectors. The system automatically administers test questions on scheduled intervals that you pick (e.g. one question every morning). It adapts to each employee’s unique knowledge level, and targets their specific areas of weakness with the goal of improving their overall proficiency. The three primary benefits of Eterna to your company are:

1. Reduction in Your Compliance Management and Training Costs

Eterna software auto-delivers your existing compliance and procedure tests to your collectors without the need for supervisor or trainer intervention, year-round. Your test questions are delivered at scheduled intervals via one of four methods (Collection software integration, Phone/IVR, Email, and Text/SMS messaging) requiring less than one minute of each employee’s time to respond.

As a Compliance Officer, you can monitor any collector’s scores and status against their certification objectives, in realtime, at any time. The automated process ensures timely and accurate testing. Eterna reports will successfully demonstrate and document your compliance program. Collectors can see their own progress as well as their learning gaps.

2. Improvement in Regulatory Knowledge Ensuring Successful Compliance

The software intelligently delivers test questions randomly selected from a larger pool that is part of your existing compliance training program. Regardless of a collector’s answer to a question, the system provides them with instantaneous feedback to reinforce their knowledge of the subject. Questions that are answered incorrectly are returned to their personal pool of questions to be presented again at a later date, to determine whether the collector has learned. Eterna charts and reports provide Compliance Officers with real-time documentation listing running scores for each Collector, making it easy to identify knowledge gaps to be addressed.

3. Improvement of Your Company’s Proficiencies

Since Eterna is competency-driven, the software is able to analyze every collector’s level of knowledge within any given competency (e.g. State versus Federal regulations, or Company Policies). Adaptive technology continuously evaluates every collector and decides which test questions to submit based on their calculated area of weakness. When applied to groups of employees, this adaptive software model allows you to improve your organizational proficiency through customized testing and training for each business unit. Occasionally, when specific operational or regulatory problems arise, you might need to address those issues on an enterprise or departmental-level. Eterna allows you to do so by inserting Priority Questions that assume priority over all future questions to be delivered to your Collectors during the next scheduled delivery period.

Benchmarking is about obtaining ideas for best practices in a given industry. This product will clearly and effectively address the requirement to train our staff and assess their retention of critical compliance topics.

To find out more about Eterna you can access their website at www.learn.net/eterna or call them at 770-642-4400. We encourage our readers to submit a “best practice” idea for inclusion in this column. I can be reached at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. Until next time, I’m in a collection office near you!

Harry A. Strausser III is president of Remit Corporation/Interact Training & Development.