If you’ve made the decision to hire a collection agency to simplify your receivables so you can concentrate on other tasks, you may want to know how to choose the right one among thousands of possibilities. There are some signs that show you a collection agency is truly professional and therefore preferable to its competitors. Following are a few of them.

Collection agencies use two kinds of fee structures. Some of them send you a bill each month, while others take their money out of the funds they recover for you. The latter is clearly preferable, because it doesn’t cost you money upfront and it shows you that they have confidence in their ability to collect. There’s really no reason to pay fees up front to a collection agency when so many of them don’t require it.

Some agencies belong to professional collection associations, while others do not. There are two such groups in the US, the Commercial Law League of America and the American Collectors Association. It’s preferable to hire a member firm for collections because they take their professional standing seriously.

Both professional collection societies insist on professional trade practices. This means not just the minimum (conforming to Fair Debt Collection Practices requirements) but also continuing education so their members understand the latest and best techniques in debt collection. Debt collection practices have changed radically over just the past couple of years so you don’t want to hire someone who’s behind the times.

The next question for a collection agency you want to hire is whether or not they will allow you to access your accounts online. Even though you’re delegating collections to them, you want to be able to check your files to see how things are going at any time. A truly professional agency will understand this need and take care of it for you rather than making you rely on monthly reports.

An important way to keep an eye on your collections files when they’ve been outsourced is online access, so one of the most important criteria for choosing a collection agency is whether or not they offer you online access to your accounts. You want to be able to check on their progress at all times, so agencies that do this are better than agencies who only offer you reports periodically in the mail.

Ask your potential collection agency if they do all their own work or outsource it. If you’re hiring a company you want that company to perform the actual work. Some agencies outsource their calls, including to offshore call centers. Unless your collections are international, in which case you will want an international collection agency that is familiar with the local culture, this is not a good idea. Debtors tend to take these calls less seriously.

The final thing you should check on when hiring a collection agency is what their business hours are. This may seem like a small thing but with national collections, time zones can be a problem, and with local collections, you still want people working outside of normal business hours. Consumer debtors are more likely to answer the phone before 9 am or after 5 pm, because they’re more likely to be home, and also because they believe collections calls are less likely at those times. A collection agency which spreads out its work hours is beneficial to you.