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Why
“Mom’s” have the Upper Hand in Debt
Collection
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by: Michelle
Dunn
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If you
are a mom, you can be a
successful bill collector. In my opinion, if you are a mom, you are
superwoman and can do anything you set your mind to. Some of the things
moms and bill collectors have in common are:
Teaching
Being assertive and firm
Being in charge of the situation
Taking initiative
Being organized to a fault
Not taking any talking back
Follow up
When you are a bill collector you need to teach debtors what, why and
when certain things happen as a result of their action. Such as what
will happen if they don’t pay their bill. It could be
reflected on their credit report, they could get dunning letters and
collection calls at home or at work, they may end up in court, or with
garnished wages. There are circumstances for everything we do. As a
mother, you spend each day teaching this to your children.
You must be sensitive to a debtor just like a small child. I am not
saying treat a debtor like a baby, but remember that a debtor is not
happy about the situation that has caused you to contact them. They
will be embarrassed and angry and you are the perfect person to take
that out on. If you can understand this before you make a collection
call, you will know that you need to help the debtor not berate them.
Be sensitive to the fact that they are embarrassed and maybe do not
have the funds to pay in full. Be understanding and helpful and you
will collect more money. A good way to do this is to put yourself in
the debtor’s shoes before you ever make a call. I would say
this is easy for most of us to do; we have all had situations beyond
our control that may have caused us to fall behind on bills and have to
make a decision on whether to go to the church to get food for our
children or use the cash we have to buy food. Then when the bill
collector calls and yells at you and tells you that a debt must be paid
in full, how would you feel? I would feel like swearing at the person
who called me and never paying them, only because they didn’t
even try to understand or accept a partial payment or hear my
situation.
Not every debtor is in a bad situation and just can’t pay.
There will always be the debtors who are always past due, who are
repeat customers. Once you have figured out who they are by keeping
your detailed organized notes on your collection efforts, you can move
to the next step with those debtors. Just like when your kids become
school age children from toddlers. Social skills that we teach our
children can be most helpful when making collection calls. When you
walk into a room and your child is sitting there eating the dirt from
the plant and the plant is tipped over with dirt everywhere, you
(hopefully) resist the urge to scream, and calmly say to your child,
“What happened here?” To which the child replies,
“I don’t know”, or “The dog did
it”. Think about what you do, you normally stare at the
child, trying to absorb this nonsense, and counting to ten so you
don’t flip out. Do the same in a collection call, when you
call a debtor and they give you an excuse or answer that floors you,
take a breath and ask a simple question. For example, you call a debtor
and say, Hello, this is Michelle, and I am calling from ABC Collections
about your balance due of $100 with Dr. Smith’s office. I am
calling to take your payment over the phone today for free. They reply,
“I paid that”. Then there is silence. You can then
ask detailed, simple questions that will alert you as to if this is a
fact and what your next step should be. You can cheerily say,
“Oh Great! When did you pay that? Did you mail the payment or
make it in person? Was it a check or money order? What was the check
number? What was the amount you paid?” Keep it simple and you
will get the results you are looking for.
You want to be in charge of the call at all times. You don’t
let your child talk back to you or be disrespectful, and you
shouldn’t let a debtor either. Once you ask a debtor a
question, stop, and let the silence sit there. Remember, if you are
uncomfortable with this silence, so is the debtor. Let them speak
first; this is how you stay in control of this situation. No matter how
long or how uncomfortable the silence is, let them break it. This is
very hard, but I did it for many years and it truly works. They will
tell you more than you need to know or they will hang up on you.
By having a child and deciding to raise it, you have taken initiative
on creating, molding and teaching a person how to be a good, caring,
honest person. Being a bill collector takes some initiative since you
have to initiate most contacts, by letter and/or by phone. You have to
be in charge of the situation, you have to negotiate, be a mediator at
times and offer a solution. You want to create in the debtor, someone
who will pay their bills or at least the bill you are trying to collect
in full, or on a scheduled payment plan, without you having to contact
them every day. If you have ever toilet trained a child, you know how
frustrating it is, and so I have no doubt you can do this.
Being a parent we have to suddenly carry a huge bag around with
everything but the kitchen sink in it. Long gone are the days of a
cute, stylish, small purse. Along comes the big bag with changes of
clothes, bottles, pacifiers, snacks, diapers, wipes, bibs, changing
pads, toys, books, aspirin (for us), sweatshirts, shoes, Vaseline,
powder, tissues and who knows what else ends up in there. We have zip
lock bags to put soiled diapers in, we are ready for anything! Being a
bill collector requires the same type of preparedness and organization.
Be prepared for anything, because anything can happen. You have to be
alert, be calm, have answers and solutions and take meticulous notes. I
always pretended that every single debtor I talked to, any of the
paperwork or notes I had on a call, were going to be reviewed by a
judge. This caused me to always be very thorough, which brought me
great success. So, when you do any collection work, just pretend you
will have to provide this information in court, and you will know what
questions to ask to get the information you need.
Being a woman bill collector is especially frustrating when a male
debtor decides to give you a hard time, because, after all, you are a
woman. My experience has been that they will laugh at you, call you
nice names such as Honey, Sweetie, Dear or not so nice names that I
can’t type here. They will ask for the man in charge, they
won’t believe anything you say, and will laugh the whole
thing off. Guess who is laughing in the end? Keeping your mouth shut
when you get this treatment from a man who thinks he has to act this
way to be a bigger man, is the best idea. Continue with your collection
efforts, do everything you say you will do, and see who is laughing
when they try to buy a new car in a year. Thank you Honey.
Follow up is key in any business, but especially collection work. Your
main job is to make sure everyone is paying; no one wants to pay and
even if they say they will pay it is up to you to call and follow up on
each payment promise. When someone tells you they will pay on Friday,
send a letter confirming the payment, you can even include a payment
envelope, how easy for them! Call on Friday to verify the check was
sent. Call on Tuesday when you don’t receive the check, to
get a check number and verify which day it was mailed. If it
wasn’t’ mailed, offer to take a payment over the
phone. You can always offer a solution.
About the author:
Michelle Dunn has over 17 years experience in credit and debt
collection. She has written 5 books in her Collecting Money Series. For
more information on Michelle’s services or to order any of
her books please visit www.michelledunn.com&
www.credit-and-collections.com
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