16 Years as an Exclusive Timeshare Collection Agency
by Linda George
President
Crawford Associates, Inc.
Crawford Associates, Inc. just celebrated 16 years as an exclusive timeshare collection agency, and once again we express our sincere gratitude to the Resort Developers, Management Companies and Owner Associations that have been a part of our growth and success. At each anniversary of our business, we pause to remember our beginning, reflect on our accomplishments and set goals for our future.
The beginning…
Our company was founded by my husband, Will George, who had many years experience in the timeshare industry, including resort collections. He has always been a firm believer in the concept and value of timeshare ownership and promoted honesty and integrity in all aspects of those business relationships.
His leadership of our company was firm yet kind, he never failed to acknowledge a job well done or to express appreciation for the help and support he received and he always spoke to the delinquent resort owner with respect and courtesy. With strong values, exceptional work ethics and a desire for perfection, he set the example, and with my 20 years in customer service as a telephone operator it was easy to establish the core values of our company, we live by them.
There was just the two of us in the beginning, Will worked with the Resort Developers, Mortgage Servicing Agents and handled all account collections. I was responsible for the business organization, all the office work, letters and accounting requirements. We were an excellent team in our work and in our marriage. Working from a small guest bedroom we had converted into an office and we found only one drawback to working from home - the occasional call back in the middle of the night from an irate or sometimes intoxicated delinquent owner. Certainly unpleasant however we were happier the late night call was not a family emergency!
And we will always remember working from paper records those first few years. We were sent a monthly report of delinquent account records on the old greenbar computer paper. All account work and collector notes were hand written and had to be transferred to the new report each month. This was a tedious and time consuming job, especially after we hired more collectors to work from their homes, and while it could become monotonous, the accuracy was outstanding!
In 1994 we began searching for a computer program to support our timeshare collections. As with Goldilocks, we found the debt collections software was too limited and cumbersome and the timeshare software came packaged with more resort functions than we needed. Lacking the availability of anything “just right” our solution was to design our own program that specifically met our timeshare collection needs.
We were extremely fortunate to have an amazing man, Peter Diroff, working with us full time while completing his education, graduating with honors and a masters degree in computer science and a second degree in accounting. With his knowledge of our business and his education, he perfectly captured, implemented and improved our design ideas. Peter continues to assist us with major upgrades while his career has taken him to large companies and exciting programming projects. We have worked with several other programmers but none have came close to grasping our needs or our design concepts.
We leased our first office space in 1996 and soon after that purchased our entire network of computers. We enjoyed the electronic transfer of account records and the ability to permanently retain collector notes on the delinquent accounts. Bringing all the collectors into an office also brought the necessity of setting office policy and procedures and developing our business philosophy and commitment. As more employees entered our workplace our policy and procedures continued to change and expand, yet we have maintained our commitment to our clients and held steadfast to our business philosophy.
1996 was also the beginning for Aaron Diller who started working as a collector and was soon promoted to Office Manager. Aaron worked full time while completing his education, graduating with honors and a degree in business. Aaron has been a critical factor in our continued success and supports the same values as our company. His dedication to our business philosophy and our commitment to our clients, in addition to his military discipline and business education, he was exceptionally qualified for his promotion to VP-Operations. Without a doubt, we would not be where we are today without him, his influence has led us to many of our accomplishments. Aaron now has 11 years with our company and has been our VP-Operations almost five years.
Our accomplishments…
The late 90s were exciting times, as our company was nominated for a Chamber of Commerce Small Business of the Year Award. Although a deserving new Women’s Healthcare Center won the award, we were excited and very proud to be a nominee.
There were also difficult times, as Will’s health forced him to resign in 1999, turning the business over to me. I had learned so very much from him, yet I was unprepared to run the entire company. He continued to guide and support me for a number of years as I struggled to develop the skills and confidence to be the decision maker. I continue to share my thoughts and ideas with him today and value his opinions.
In 2004 we had group photos taken in our office for a Christmas card - that started a new annual tradition - and more! That first group photo was taken in front of our wall covered by a world map. From this image we immediately branded our services as “A World of Difference”, and then we developed an advertising image to promote those differences on our website, in our ads and at our ARDA convention exhibits.
As the business demands evolved from resort mortgage collections to annual association collections, our computer program design became more specific and detailed. From these original program designs, Peter developed and we launched our website in 2005.
Our resort clients now have full access to view their delinquent account records, reports and even our collector notes. The importance of this achievement was made memorable by a delinquent owners call to the association management office. Claiming they had never heard from our company, the management office looked up the account records and was able to quote the specific dates and times our office had in fact spoke to them - even the context of the conversations, as well as the dates and number of letters we had sent. Needless to say that owner paid their past due balance immediately.
These accomplishments in technology allow us to be competitive with large collection agencies, with some glaring differences. We use technology to support our collection efforts with accurate data, quick access to account records and with automated daily processing. We refuse to sacrifice our commitment to personal customer service for automated telephone systems.
2005 will always be a memorable year for reaching another of our goals, one million dollars in revenue. The tremendous investment we made in electronics and technology allowed us to work more efficiently, however this accomplishment can not be recognized without a tribute to the confidence and trust of our resort clients who placed their delinquent accounts with our company.
In 2007, with our local commercial real estate market at a peak, we took a long term lease rather than a purchase contract and relocated to a spacious new office. Most of our previous lease space was only adequate and functional, now we have room to support substantial growth. We were able to maintain an individual desk for each collectors comfort and privacy and with a full wall of windows, each desk faces a peaceful calming lake front.
This view is a great stress reliever for our collectors, our most valuable assets. These unique individuals go through weeks of training on collection laws, timeshare operations and association by-laws, followed by our business philosophy and commitment then our computer program. They produce outstanding results through their professional, courteous and respectful contact with delinquent owners. We are proud of our excellent staff who are always eager to learn more and who work together as a team.
Our goals for the future…
As we give thought to our past years and appreciate where we are today, we also set goals for our future. Our goals for 2008 are to double the size of our company while maintaining our steadfast commitment to our resort clients.
And with minor additions to our computer programming we are eager to enter the annual billing and receivables market for resort associations. This concept has always been a goal as we developed our program design, and a natural expansion of our resort services with some unique features. We are the only company that offers the resort association an “all inclusive” billing and receivable service with a flat rate fee.
The association at a single resort property is provided full access to their owner records over our secure website, giving them a comprehensive database without the need to purchase and maintain their own network systems. The associations at larger resort groups or management companies receive the same access and can also import data electronically into their own resort network.
One thing is for sure, all of our computer development and design has been approved by someone who is barely computer literate, that someone is me. The ease and simplicity of our program design has proven to be more valuable than anticipated. Any resort staff member, whether a skilled computer user or not, will be able to access records and reports like a pro. We also realize computer skills are not required for new employees, which opens up the employment market to anyone interested in a customer service position with our company. Peter did an awesome job of taking my ideas and concepts from paper and making them work – beyond a “user friendly” way but more of a “Linda friendly” way! So the uses and functions of our website, without a doubt, can be handled by anyone who can find the internet.
We have aggressive goals for the growth of our company and the expansion of our services into association billing and receivables, yet we choose to keep our “small business attitude”. We work harder, do more, charge less and provide better results to our resort association and management clients. Our number one goal is to provide the best possible service at the lowest possible cost.
Please see our ad in this issue of Resort Trades Management and Operations magazine and visit our website to view our previous articles published as well as additional information about our company. We appreciate this publication most for their unpretentious efforts to serve the resort management and operations sector of the timeshare industry. We have witnessed huge improvements in this magazine over a short period of time and we wish them continued success.
