When you make calls to customers that are past due, brace yourself for an emotional phone call. That emotion might be anger, embaressment, sadness and could entail crying, swearing and yelling.
Be ready for this. Making debt collection calls is hard enough but trying to convince a crying customer to send you money is something else.
Always remember that debtors will get upset that you are calling them, even when they know they owe you money, they think you need to go without that money because they may be having a hard time.
When a debtor begins to tell you their life story, or swears, yells, cries or is silent, you do need to have compassion for the situation and offer a solution to get your bill paid. You can listen and then tell them that you understand and based on their situation set up a payment plan or different options for payment that will benefit you both.
This is not always easy to do and sometimes isn't even possible, depending on the anger involved, but this has worked for me and other collectors in the past.
Comment Preview