There is an old Italian proverb I want to quote that sounds more or less like this:
” There is always time to pay your debts and die”
The historical gives an explanation to this sentence
A debtor waits more time is possible to pay his debt as well It should be nice to wait for more time to die.
As professionals we have seen how it is became difficult to collect money during the pandemic period in 2020 because of
Covid-19.
We were used to listen to lot of excuses ,more or less true, incredible histories or disputes not existing just to avoid to pay.
Italy and overall Bergamo the city where we live and have our legal headquarter was affected by this healthy situation in a tremendous way.
Not only and principally the lost of the beloved ones but the lost of work as well.
We have studied ,created a way to be more effective with the debtors and this made and it going to make the difference in our results to the benefit of our
Clients.
WHAT and HOW to do the debt collection by phone ?
1) Be prepared : it means that we have received all the information from our Clients about the debt amount , the debtor’s attitude, his company situation through a deep research at the Chamber of Commerce or Register, that means to know if the society is still active , inactive, bankrupted and so on.
2) To collect more information is possible about the case : that means to record and charge on a system all the necessary documentation , claims, fresh conversation with the debtor not only like a verbal information but and overall if a legal case needs to be started , in written.
The Roman people was used to say (quote)
“ Verba volant , scripta manent ”
It means “words fly” and it is easy sometimes, to misunderstand the content of a discussion
It is important to have written evidences.
3) Do not be arrogant with the debtor : the tone in a conversation on the phone is everything since there is no possibility to watch directly the debtor into his eyes. Being a kind mediator . It is not said that the debt is correct, our request is right ; maybe a dispute exists before our interventions since sometimes happens that our clients do not tell us the whole history or something happened to the debtor causing the lack of the payment of the due amount. Always remember that the debtor is the our Client’s client !
4) Avoid confrontation and manipulation : attempt to find out if the debtor’s excuse for not paying is legitimate. Listen carefully to what the person is telling you, and get a sense of whether the person is being honest with you.
5) Stay calm : yes you have well understood. Always try to stay calm even if the debtor becomes abusive during the contact. If this happens, you might suggest calling back later. Sometimes it can happen that the phone collection becomes difficult to manage because one another character. Remember point 3!
6) Help the debtor : it can always happen that a debtor with a good willing , would like to pay but he is not able to do it. For experience , first getting an own decision, it is better “to be prepared” adding to point 1 this thing to know : when we speak with the client at the very beginning of our credit collection we always ask them the possibility to deal with the debtor for a certain amount we are to authorized to ask to the debtor as payment, example 50%-70% and so on. In those last times where credit collection is became a difficult activity to be carried out completely, we always prefer to try to find the right amount to satisfy our client’s needs and being sure that the debtor will be able to pay for it.
7) Plan of payment : this is an essential part of the credit collection, Do you remember the Romans’ quote ” verba volant, scripta manent” ? that means the legally speaking the debtor is more involved and engaged to take his promise to pay and our client has more guarantees of the debtor’s payments.
We always use one of our partner expression : our client’s success is ours
We have discovered a “real” world around the credit collection because of many heads thinking differently and thanks to our long experience we can share
a secret :
The secret of a good credit collection in one word is : continual learning in such area , changing the own attitude, being motivated and empathetic.