Colin Naylor, Managing Director of DUKES BAILIFFS and Co-Chairman of industry association CIVEA, says the power of technology is being harnessed to make the industry more efficient, accountable and professional.

"With the current public consultation on implementation of Part 3 of the Tribunals, Courts and Enforcement Act our industry will take a further step along the path to a fully transparent, fair code of practice and operating principles.

All of us who believe in the future of the industry welcome developments that mean our clients and the wider public can understand better the valuable job we do.

Quite apart from working with the various authorities to underline our commitment to standards, there are a number of initiatives with the new technologies which increase knowledge of what is happening on cases, improve the ability to direct and control activities in the field and provide hard evidence to clients that correct procedures are being followed.

For example, there is "Crystal Ball", a monitoring system with vehicle tracing technology that provides live information such as vehicle speed, journey time, distance and precise location. The data is stored for three months and is available to download. Where debtors dispute visit or phone records the system provides detailed, instant and incontrovertible evidence of the facts. For customers it means help in resolving outstanding cases quickly and decisively.

For staff, the technology features a panic button, a welfare function and a tracking device. They can notify colleagues if they feel there might be a potential for confrontation. Crystal Ball has Mobile Monitor and Lone Worker smart phone applications which also log calls and text messages in real time.

All this avoids so much potential for the arguments about time and place which make up a huge proportion of case conflict.

What's more it means people can feel much safer, even when they are engaged on cases where there is clear potential for them to be put under duress or even physical attack.

We are now also using Neal CD Audio Interview Recorders in debtor interviews and complaints procedures. These are similar devices to those used by every police force in the UK and enables clients to know that accurate, exact records of meetings with debtors are being kept, with the resulting benefits in dispute resolution.

Lastly, there is some state-of-the-art software from managementmycomplaints.com which is the first specialist online customer feedback and complaint management service designed specifically for SMEs, which will capture and analyse customer feedback to identify any problem areas.

As an industry we must do more than simply accept change, we must positively embrace it as a means of strengthening our relationship with customers. Sometimes new technology is seen as replacing the personal element of business, but in our case we have found it can actually enhance it by providing hard evidence that the right things are being done at the right time. That can only be in everyone's interest".