Those who make it in the business world like to say it’s because of who they knew, and to “network, network, network.” Sometimes, that “who” you know can help your business in ways you never thought you might need. In this case study, a single connection shows us an example of the power of what “who” can do for you.
Case Study: One Legal
With more than two decades providing legal support services nationwide, One Legal – headquartered in Novato, California, with approximately 135 on staff – has risen to become one of the leaders in the electronic filing and service world. Adapting to advances in technologies for document filings, process serving, and court research has allowed One Legal to become one of the premiere resources for legal services throughout the country.
“We understand the legal world, which is primarily paper-based,” states Scott Zaleski, One Legal’s director of finance and administration. “So we know we needed to implement a collections strategy that was also paper-based.”
Zaleski’s experience with the process of trying to collect on legal services rendered began long before he began helping One Legal recover its past-due revenue. Prior to joining the One Legal team, Zaleski worked at a respected collections agency, where he established good relationships with some of the collections executive team, subsequently hiring them for One Legal. “They worked for us, but then they changed models. They don’t do things [the same way as Optio Solutions does], and their performance dropped significantly,” reports Zaleski.
One of the ways Zaleski felt let down was the lack of personal service. “They bounced me through a couple of account representatives there, and I never had that personal contact.” He found that personal service he was looking for in Ray Stawiarski, Optio’s district sales manager. “I can always call Ray, and he’ll do whatever I need,” continued Zaleski.
One Legal is taking advantage of both Strategy I and Strategy II processes. “We chose these because phone calls are simply disregarded. We need something stronger. Our customer base is primarily law firms, so they don’t care if they get a recorded message. We need things done by mail, such as paper dunning notices.”
The strategy – both of them – is working. In the short time Optio has been serving One Legal, collectors have recovered tens of thousands of dollars. “We have a low bad debt rate, with a 0.3% write-off for total sales,” Zaleski says. “Although we don’t send a lot of volume to Optio from a dollar perspective, what we do send, they’re getting back to us.”
One Legal has already committed to working with Optio Solutions going forward. Are you facing an uphill court battle, evasive clients, or past-due accounts that you’re thinking of giving up forever? Let Optio Solutions help YOU. Everyone’s got to start somewhere. Begin here with our guide on how to choose a collections agency:
