What do you think of the idea of combining credit and customer service?

Answer: I may be in the minority, but I do not think it works well. Specialization leads to productivity improvements. Generalists, which are what this idea would create, may be good at a lot of things but not necessarily great at anything. I want collection specialists, deduction specialists, and financial / risk analysts to be great at what they do. I want them to be highly trained experts...not generalists. In addition, I would be concerned that under this arrangement collection and deduction resolution [the black hat jobs] would take a back seat to more pleasant work - such as taking orders and tracking orders for customers.