How to fortify your skip tracing campaign (part 2)

Last week, I shared with you that I received an interesting email from a fellow collection practitioner who was just recently assigned to a new collection/ strategy department. The reason I find her email interesting is the fact that this will give me the opportunity to give my thoughts and assists in fortifying a collection department particularly on skip tracing capability. The email sender is asking for my advice regarding collection best practices particularly on skip tracing procedure. 

Personally, I believed that any receivables management or related department would not be as exciting and challenging as it is without a fortified skip tracing campaign. For me, the challenge of obtaining information from various sources to locate a consumer or entity that is deemed unable-to-locate (UTL) makes the difference between a good collection effort and successful collection result. Once mastered, skip tracing will unlock doors to voluminous information that will prove useful in further escalation or collection report. 

Simply defined, skip tracing is the method of pinpointing the location of an existing consumer or business entity. In tracing a location, the first and foremost rule for a skip tracer is the familiarization of the different areas and districts in ones area or the locality concerned. This will surely aid in facilitating skip checking. Typically, this includes cadastral road maps and telephone and buildings directories are valuable references for locating streets and buildings.

There are different aids in doing skip tracing. The basic sources of information in determining where to look for a “skip” are the following: recent or latest credit application, credit investigation reports and other records of the account. In particular, the following are some of the various sources in skip tracing, such as: place of employment (POE), previous employers, his family, wife, children, close relatives, neighbors and friends, references including personal and trade references, bank references, social network references, landlord, neighborhood business - grocery, sari-sari store, barber shop, etc., telephone directories, co-makers, local credit bureau, different government offices, different private/public utility companies/agencies, e.g. power and water, cable providers among others.

The above enumeration emphasizes the importance of requiring the credit applicant to fill up the credit application completely. The information coming from these sources must be indicated in the report or can be secured during the skip tracing. In addition, the skip tracer must be able to develop his own sources of information. Reading the obituaries, hospital notes and other source of information/ reports such as local newspaper may give some lead to a skip. Also, cultivating friendly relations with or learning how to approach people who are in a position to know others especially customers i.e. - bartenders, waitresses, union officials, government officials, officemates - will be greatly helpful in conducting a successful skip tracing campaign or in short, being an effective skip tracer. For comments, rejoinders and questions related to credit & collection, send email to [email protected].