Techniques To Get The Most Out Of Your Debt Collectors

Advice For
In-House
Debt Col­lec­tion

Tech­niques To Get The Most Out Of Your Debt Collectors

By Dean Kaplan

Tech­niques To Get The Most Out Of Your Debt Collectors

In the same way pro­duc­tion lines max­i­mize pro­duc­tiv­ity in man­u­fac­tur­ing, these tips can help you max­i­mize pro­duc­tiv­ity in your col­lec­tion agency.

When you want to improve the job per­for­mance and sat­is­fac­tion of your debt col­lec­tors, there are sev­eral strate­gies that appear to work.

Self-esteem

Nowa­days, self-esteem is touted as essen­tial to a person’s hap­pi­ness and suc­cess. This is because every­one wants to feel impor­tant and val­ued. In the debt col­lec­tions arena, improv­ing self-esteem among col­lec­tors can lead to greater pro­duc­tiv­ity and debt col­lec­tion suc­cess. Here are some tips to help improve self-esteem:

• Ask your debt col­lec­tors for advice. Even if you feel you know the answer to your ques­tion, ask for their opin­ion. This makes the col­lec­tors feel that you value their input.
• Always use the collector’s name when you are talk­ing to him or her. Make it a point to remem­ber each collector’s name, and know­ing some per­sonal infor­ma­tion about each per­son is even bet­ter.
• Steer clear of argu­ments. Dis­cussing sub­jects is fine, argu­ing is not. When you argue, the per­son you are talk­ing to might infer that you think he or she is wrong. When a per­son feels crit­i­cized, self-esteem goes down.
• Make it a point to “catch your col­lec­tors being good” occa­sion­ally. A com­pli­ment goes a long way to enhance self-esteem.
• Be a good lis­tener. Don’t do all the talk­ing. Let the other per­son talk and show inter­est in what he or she is say­ing.
• Keep col­lec­tors informed about all the infor­ma­tion or issues that per­tain to their jobs. Show them the same respect that you would like to be shown.
• Find a way to repeat a smart remark made by a col­lec­tor to oth­ers. This will show your regard for the per­son and puts them in a good light with oth­ers. This does not mean you should show favoritism.

Teach your Col­lec­tors to Become Good Listeners

Many peo­ple are ill-equipped when it comes to good lis­ten­ing skills. Being a good lis­tener enhances job per­for­mance because fewer mis­takes are made due to mis­un­der­stood or lack of infor­ma­tion. In addi­tion, debt col­lec­tors do a bet­ter job on claims when they are lis­ten­ing care­fully to cus­tomers and giv­ing cus­tomers the impres­sion that they care about what is being said. Below are some tips on improv­ing lis­ten­ing skills:

• As soon as you pick up the phone to place your call, be ready to lis­ten. Sit up straight and focus on the per­son you are speak­ing to.
• Avoid being dis­tracted. Remove any­thing from your imme­di­ate vicin­ity that will take your atten­tion away from the phone call you are on.
• Take detailed notes when you are work­ing a claim. These notes will be invalu­able when you are inputting your data into your debt col­lec­tion soft­ware after the phone call has ended.

Plan­ning

Teach your col­lec­tors how to plan each of their debt col­lec­tion calls. By gath­er­ing all rel­e­vant infor­ma­tion ahead of time, the col­lec­tor will be well pre­pared for the phone call and will have greater col­lec­tion suc­cess. Here are some advanced plan­ning tips for collectors:

• Plan­ning requires col­lect­ing facts and data. Col­lec­tors should have all con­tact infor­ma­tion, invoices, pay­ment his­tory and guar­an­tees at their fin­ger­tips before any phone call is made.
• Col­lec­tors should know the company’s credit pol­icy inside and out. By under­stand­ing the inter­nal credit-related “rules” enforced by the com­pany, he or she will be able to talk knowl­edge­ably with the cus­tomer about pay­ment terms.
• Col­lec­tors should be knowl­edge­able about the cur­rent credit avail­able to the cus­tomer and any issues relat­ing to future sales or ship­ments that the cus­tomer should be told. If a credit stop has been ini­ti­ated, this may help to moti­vate a slow or no-pay cus­tomer to get pay­ments going again.

Ways to Keep your Col­lec­tors Motivated

Within any orga­ni­za­tion, employ­ees must feel essen­tial to the process. If employ­ees do not feel needed and nec­es­sary, pro­duc­tiv­ity and ulti­mately prof­itabil­ity will suf­fer. Here are some tips to keep col­lec­tors and employ­ees in gen­eral, motivated:

• Keep your col­lec­tors informed. Take the time to tell col­lec­tors all the infor­ma­tion they need to suc­cess­fully do their job.
• Chal­lenge your col­lec­tors. This will enable them to grow and evolve.
• Cre­ate a sup­port­ive work envi­ron­ment where col­lec­tors can feel proud of the job they are doing.
• Give col­lec­tors praise when they are doing a good job.

Debt col­lec­tors can con­tribute sig­nif­i­cantly to the prof­itabil­ity of a com­pany. Use these tips to keep your col­lec­tors on task and motivated.

The Kaplan Group is a bou­tique col­lec­tion agency spe­cial­iz­ing in large (over $10,000) debt col­lec­tions due from busi­nesses. Founded in 1991, the com­pany has a stel­lar rep­u­ta­tion (A+ rat­ing with the Bet­ter Busi­ness Bureau) and is rec­og­nized as one of the lead­ing col­lec­tion agen­cies for results on large and com­plex mat­ters.

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