"Warm" Collections Leave Me Cold

Not long ago I noticed the following job listing on Career Builders for an AR / Collections Specialist:

“Will be responsible for daily warm commercial collection calls via phone and email...” The italics are mine.

Warm collection calls? What the hell are warm collections? Along similar lines, I have seen ads for someone to make soft collection calls. Are companies serious? They want someone who will beg, plead and maybe cry real tears in order to get a payment from a delinquent customer? Are they looking for collectors who speak in tones as soft as a whisper and can make the payment request sound seductive? These are not necessarily bad requirements. No one is going to intentionally hire or ask for a collector who is snarly, cantankerous, confrontational and subject to frequent loss of temper and prone to violence. But come on, when warmth and gentle persuasion fail, you need collectors who can go to a plan B.

I’ve said it before, collections are like sales. Collectors… that is, effective collectors, are very similar to sales people and their techniques are virtually the same. A sales person persuades the customer to buy, while a collector persuades the customer to pay. Yet, when a company is looking to hire a sales rep, the descriptive terms for the ideal candidate are usually, energetic, enthusiastic, highly motivated, etc. Unless the sales rep is pitching Aqua Velva or Victoria Secret, warm or soft sales are not usual sales characteristics in high demand. In fact, the best sales people are probably those creative enough to have a large arsenal of techniques which include warmth and softness and they utilize these as well as aggressiveness, persistence and even some arm twisting; whatever the situation demands. The same is true for effective collectors.

The company looking for warm or soft collections has either had some very bad experiences with previous collectors, or believes that customers are so easily offended they’ll never buy again if the collection call is in any way intimidating or offensive. It has been my experience that whenever a customer complains about a collection call, they describe the caller as rude. However, these complaints most often come from someone who is offended by the nature of the call, rather than the tone and any call asking for payment, no matter how warm or soft, will be viewed as an act of profound rudeness. A confrontational collection style may also be a sign of inexperience. Someone unaccustomed to talking to strangers and feels the need to be bold in an attempt to disguise their uncertainty or lack of confidence will come off as abrupt and possibly adversarial. Sometimes customers will display anger and impatience with a collector and create a reaction from the collector that is equally temperamental. If someone is yelling angrily at you, there is a natural tendency to react defensively in the same manner, resulting in two people shouting at each other.

An experienced collector knows and lives by the old saying, “You can catch more flies with honey than vinegar.” Initial calls to a debtor are most often offers to help and to get information. Does the customer have a payment schedule; do they need anything, is everything all right? How much more warm can the call be? Subsequent calls are always friendly but firm, reminding the debtor of his broken promise or failure to live up to the last commitment. It does the collector no good to get irritable or angry. Once that line is crossed, the debtor is forever alienated. For the most part, effective collectors, like sales reps, create enduring relationships with the customers. Customers will pay someone they like and avoid someone who upsets them.

Companies looking to hire efficient collectors should require experience, creativity and a possession of good follow up skills. They should be looking for people who are competitive and creative, personable, affable and like sales people, back slapping friendly and able to twist a debtors arm so that he’s paying more than he intended.

If you need any help assessing your collectors characteristics, effectiveness and productivity, or if they need instruction as to how to become better collectors without upsetting anyone, contact as at Strategic Credit Management Solutions. We know collections and collectors. See our website at http://powerscredit.com/, or contact us at patrickpowers@sbcglobal.net. Your comments are welcome