skip tracers-privacy is your competitive advantage
DESCRIPTION
Skip tracers heading to the 2014 North American Repossessors Summit (NARS) will hear first hand from a Consumer Financial Protection Bureau(CFPB) representative about how regulation will impact the skip tracing industry. Knowing the rights and wrongs for skip tracing as regulation increases will influence your long term success. Following CFPB representative Karyn Mysliwiec’s presentation, Head Belle Ringer Paul Kulas presented NARS attendees with strategic solutions for skip tracers, so they can can succeed despite, and because of, privacy regulations. Between the National Security Agency (NSA) leaks from Edward Snowden and increasing briefs filed by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), privacy is one of the top issues for federal regulators and businesses. Knowing the law and the risks for skip tracers is important. Knowing how to work within the law as a compliant business communicates to lenders that you are the skip tracer they want work with.TRANSCRIPT
Privacy Is Your Competitive AdvantagePresented by Paul Kulas of Belles Camp Communications
Paul Kulas
Owner and Head Bell Ringer Belles Camp CommunicationsEagle, Colo.
970.328.0400
Belles Camp CommunicationsIs Changing How Skip Tracing Is Done
• 23 years providing services for skip tracing– First “trap line”– Blind line– Calling cards
• Founded SkipTracy in 2002– New techniques for skip tracing:
• Unique caller ID for each phone call (aka, caller ID spoofing)• Programs
• BellesLink – July 2013 – First service for skip tracing to combine:
• Compliance• Communications• Case management
What We Will Cover
• Privacy Landscape– Today’s youth are tomorrow’s clients
– Regulations are on the rise
• Data broker industry
• LPR technology
• Your Client’s View– Their perspective, why you should work backwards from there
• 3 Situations And Solutions– How each situation affects you
– A solution to each situation
– Why each solution is a competitive advantage
A Special Resource for NARS Members
• 2014 North American Repossessors Summit– A Magic Skip Tracing Button Doesn’t Exist
Presented exclusively for NARS Members
– Slide deck of this presentation
– Links to related blog posts and compliant skip tracing techniques
info.belleslink.com/nars2014
Complaining is Not a Strategy
Begin the video on the next slide at 8min 30sec.
12.18.13, The United States Senate held a hearing to review data brokers: “A Review of the Data Broker Industry: Collection, Use, and Sale of Consumer Data for Marketing Purposes”
Regulations Are On The Rise
Senate looked at:• What data about consumers is being collected?
• How specific is this data?
• How is the data obtained?
• Who buys this data and how is it used?
The Senate found that:
• Data brokers collect a huge amount of detailed information on hundreds of millions of consumers
• Data brokers sell products that identify financially vulnerable consumers
• Data brokers operate behind a veil of secrecy
The Senate report concluded with a call for “continued vigorous oversight” of the industry.
Regulations Are On The Rise
Web search for the phrase
“License Plate Reader”• July 2013 ACLU report,
“You are being tracked” is #1
• 5 other links on page 1 not favorable to repo business
Regulations Are On The Rise
Regulations Are On The Rise
The ACLU vs ALPR
ACLU is taking direct aim at automatic license plate recognition technology and policies.
https://www.aclu.org/alpr
Digital Recovery Network is suing Utah over its Automatic License Plate Reader System Act, claiming First Amendment protection. • 5 other states have laws similar to Utah’s
• Far reaching repercussions – 20 other states are reviewing bills that would curb private and public use of LPR
Regulations Are On The Rise
Press Release:DRN and Vigilant Solutions Lawsuit Names Utah Governor Gary Herbert and Attorney General Sean Reyes as Defendants in Freedom of Speech Case
Flashback to NARS 2013
My 2013 presentation:
“Compliance and a Forward View for the Repossession Industry”
Your Clients’ View
In 2014, compliance includes privacy!
Slideshare
In 2013, I said:• “CFPB will grow”
– It has doubled in size.
• 3.13.14 – CFPB names new regulator (Jeffrey Langer) to oversee auto finance market
• 2M+ complaints
• debt collection complaints have already outpaced complaints about bank accounts and credit cards and represent the second-highest volume of complaints received about any financial service between July 2013 and January 2014.
Your Clients’ View
In 2013, I said:• “Therefore, every communication (phone calls, database
searches, texts, emails) should be linked.”
– You doing it?
• Let’s have a show of hands.
Your Clients’ View
In 2013, I said:• Phone calls aren’t coming from a central point – “Quit calling
me” “way too complicated”, impossible to support
– Repeated phone calls (“quit calling me”), calls to those not involved with the debt (“I have no idea where the car is”), are most common CFPB complaints
Your Clients’ View
Privacy is in the news and on everyone’s mind.
Target credit card breach of 40 million consumers•More than 90 lawsuits have been filed by consumers and banks• “Memo to IT – if this happens to us you’re fired”
• Board meetings – “If this happens to us our stock takes a hit. Are our vendors protecting our information?”
Your clients and regulators are listening to you on social media and the web.
• What if an employee posts, “privacy? what privacy?”
– You are guilty by association
Your Clients’ View
Privacy is in the news and on everyone’s mind.
Trends are to niche, social sites with no ads or data mining
• Remember the video at the start of this presentation?
• In 5 years Facebook will be out (it already is) and privacy will be cool
Your Clients’ View
Why wait? It’s getting late. Start now.
Situation #1
!#@%&!RegulationsYour strategy is to complain about regulations or you’re just ignoring privacy issues.
Situation #1–!#@%&! Regulations
Solution• Complaining is NOT a strategy
• My advice? Sell your company.
• Face the music
• Do what it takes to compete in this new era
Situation #1–!#@%&! Regulations
Your Competitive Advantage
• Clients/relationships you’ve had for years see the changes. Your contact left, but your relationship survived
• Barrier to entry – you retain the competitive advantage of the years long relationships
Situation #2
Blah, Blah PrivacyPrivacy is just a paragraph on your website, a CYA statement in your policy handbook, something that you don’t take seriously.
Situation #2–Blah, Blah Privacy
Solution• You see the changing landscape.
– “Kulas is right.”
• You make the changes that keep you in the mix.
• You do more, including changing (investing in) your website so the world knows what you’re up to.
Situation #2–Blah, Blah Privacy
Your Competitive Advantage
• The investments made become tangible over time. There are fewer competitors, your business is growing (cars don’t repo themselves)
• The changes you made line up perfectly with consumer’s view of privacy. New contacts at your client’s (some from the video) see what you’re about, you get more deals
Situation #3
Privacy, But No SecurityYou want to stay ahead, but you know your data retention and security policies are insufficient.
Your…• data is cached.• passwords are weak/not changed regularly. • laptops go home with employees. • VoIP calls aren’t encrypted.• OS updates are not done regularly.• backups not verified.
Situation #3–Privacy, But No Security
Solution• You embrace IT as an asset not a cost.
• Use trusted sources that specialize in what you do. You verify your trusted sources are doing what they say they are doing.
• Recruit and retain tech savvy people.
• Really?? Yes, it’s a challenge. Tech savvy people aren’t attracted to your industry. So…
• Make yourselves attractive (salary, benefits, equity)
• Marketing—webinars, blog posts—about what you’re up to
Situation #3–Privacy, But No Security
Your Competitive Advantage
• Visibility. Web Searches on compliance/privacy link to you.
• Compliance sets you a part. Your clients view you as an asset, not a liability.
• If consolidation takes place, you’re an attractive company to purchase.
NADA report: In 2013, new car sales revenue was $588B. What % will go to repo?
• In era of increased regulations, it’s much easier for the regulators to steam roll an industry.
• Shift the power from local businesses to larger, regional or national players.
• The little guy is screwed.
Embrace Co-Opetition
• Embrace Co-opetition.– http://mayet.som.yale.edu/coopetition
Co-opetition means cooperating to create a bigger business “pie” while competing to divide it up. By working together, you’ll be able to achieve the changes that you need. You’ll be able to
define and grow the “pie” and compete based on ability, compliance and added value rather than just cost.
Thank You!
A Special Resource for NARS Attendees
info.belleslink.com/nars2014
Contact MePaul Kulas | [email protected] | 970.328.0400