I love it.. seminary students!

Collection Agency Does Fine Work -- Rounding Up Recalcitrant Library Users

By SARAH LUECK
Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
December 14, 1999

JEFFERSONVILLE, IND. -- As night falls in this tiny town, Julie Wannamaker settles into her office cubicle, switches on her computer and goes to work prodding people to pay off old debts.

"I'm calling to remind you about your remaining balance of $88.50," the 25-year-old tells a woman in Muncie, Ind. "You'll want to step in and take care of that as soon as possible to avoid the possibility of credit reporting," Ms. Wannamaker says, the threat veiled in her sugary Southern accent. "Thanks very much."

If this Baptist seminary student sounds gentler than the average repo man, that's because she represents people for whom getting pushy usually means shushing a noisy patron: librarians.

Her employer, Unique Management Services Inc., says it is the only collection agency in the country that focuses exclusively on overdue library books and fines. Its business is booming as local librarians, squeezed by tight budgets and rising material costs, grow increasingly willing to use forceful tactics on recalcitrant borrowers.

"If you're losing 10% of your collection, you could be talking $1 million. You can't just let that go walking away," says Tamara Filbert, head of circulation at the public library in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, one of 250 libraries that have hired Unique to dun overdue borrowers.

Libraries are trying lots of new ways to deal with patrons in arrears. In Columbia, Tenn., the Maury County Public Library recently announced plans to publish the names of its top 25 "offenders" in an upcoming newspaper ad, director Elizabeth Potts says. The announcement alone shamed people into returning more than 450 books and writing $400 in "guilty conscience checks," Ms. Potts says.

In Westland, Mich., the public library turns tardy patrons over to the city police if its own notices don't work. First, a letter is sent on police department stationery, and those who don't respond can be charged with misdemeanor theft, which carries penalties of up to 90 days in jail and a $500 fine.

No one's been put behind bars yet, but about 300 such citations have been issued, says Joe Burchill, a library spokesman. So far, people who return books have been ordered to pay $100 in court costs in addition to their fines. "Libraries are traditionally nurturing places," Mr. Burchill says. "But business is business."

And libraries can be good business -- or so Unique co-owners Lyle Stucki and Charlie Gary thought when they were running a general collection agency together in the early 1990s. After helping a library in Bedford, Ind., retrieve its overdue books and fines, they decided in 1994 to focus on that market niche.

They soon discovered that librarians worry that arm-twisting tactics could alienate patrons. "The circulation staff is so fearful that these people are going to run into the library and yell at them or come in with a gun or something," Mr. Stucki says.

'Gentle Nudge'

So he and Mr. Gary developed what they call a "gentle nudge" approach to motivating procrastinators. "Our philosophy is to treat people the way we like to be treated, all the time, no matter what," Mr. Stucki tells a prospective client on the phone. He's a leader of his local Mormon church, and hanging on his office wall is a framed copy of the Golden Rule.

He says Unique's third-party status offers libraries added credibility and clout. "People just feel like, hey, it's the library, it's not that important that I get this stuff back," he says. "What we're doing is creating a little leverage so they'll respond." The company's goal is merely to goad borrowers into action; Unique doesn't even know the titles of the books that are overdue.

Libraries have turned over more than 500,000 accounts to Unique since 1994. Staffers send out roughly 75,000 letters and make 32,000 phone calls a month. The average patron owes $65, which can be reduced if books are returned. Libraries pay the company $4.95 per individual account, and add the fee to patron fines. Last year, the company recorded $2 million in revenue and collected more than $10 million in money and materials. Unique gets about 60% of the people it contacts to return books and pay fines, Mr. Stucki says.

When it gets a new account, the company first sends a "courtesy letter" telling people who've ignored library notices that the library "would like to have you again as a patron in good standing." A second letter warns that Unique may alert credit agencies. "Why allow this to happen?" the letter says. "We feel sure you will agree that response is the best solution."

Then comes a pair of phone calls from Unique staffers such as Ms. Wannamaker. Like many staffers, Ms. Wannamaker was recruited from the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in nearby Louisville, Ky. Messrs. Stucki and Gary believe these future ministers, missionaries and Sunday-school teachers are more likely to turn the other cheek when provoked by patrons.

One night at the Jeffersonville call center, a shaken Ms. Wannamaker takes a coffee break after one library patron hangs up on her and another threatens a lawsuit. Caller Jody Thomas, 27, tries to reason with a woman who is angrily disputing that she owes $87.90 to New York's Queens Borough Public Library.

"Don't deal with us," Mr. Thomas tells her. "Clear this up with them." Mr. Thomas, also a seminary student, rolls his eyes as the woman yells in his ear. After the call, he laughs off her tirade: "She just got excited. If I didn't have the faith I do, it would be easier to get upset with people."

When patrons don't respond, this mild-mannered collection agency can get tough by reporting debtors to a credit-reporting agency. Company officials say Unique does so only as a last resort, but it did report 10,000 people in September alone.