Fight or flight responses are typical in many credit unioncollections departments, but for collections operations supervisorKyrie Deger and his team at VyStar Credit Union in Jacksonville,Fla., that reaction has been subsiding one solution at a time.

“We're lucky,” CU Times' latest Trailblazer 40 Belowsaid. “In our organization, our group is celebrated. For us, it'sbeen about getting out of the mentality of collections as anecessary evil and instead being a solutions-oriented group. It'snot that we have to call members, we want to call them toprovide the best solution possible.”

Having that simple shift in perception has made all thedifference at the $5.5 billion credit union. Escalated callactivity has become a rare occurrence, members have been morewilling to call in asking for help, and process improvements withinthe department have been found useful across the organization, hesaid.