Have you ever had a perfect collection call?
In this call, did you immediately connect with the consumer, and were you able to easily navigate through the collection process to secure the payment?
In my decades of experience, these calls lead to positive outcomes for both the consumer and the collector. The reality is these calls are like a diamond in the rough which means they rarely happen.
Imagine if more of the calls your team made were like that.
A few months ago, I was fortunate enough to be featured on Mike Gibb’s Talk Off Episode 32, with Leslie Bender and Ashley Campanella, two prominent leaders in the industry. It was a great discussion with helpful tips and tidbits on how to make better connections with the consumer.
I wholeheartedly believe that the debt collection industry was built on a baby boomer mentality. Collectors were trained to be more forceful and demanding in their payment requests. The philosophy was based more on a pride and responsibility concept meaning ‘you received a service…now it’s time to pay for that service.’
In today’s world, I train my collectors to approach the consumer with empathy. It seems to work better with the younger generation who are known to base a lot of their decisions on how they are feeling.
With that in mind, we can adapt our collection strategies to bring humanity to the process to appeal to the emotional needs of our consumers. The best way I’ve found to do this is to focus on connection.
Ashley weighed in on the topic of improving connections. She shared that her team posts human interest stories with videos and photos to better connect with the consumer. She said, in today’s age, it’s important for consumers to see them as people with real stories and real lives.
How to Get Your Team Where They Need to Be
If you want to go from overwhelmed consumers to incredibly happy customers, all you need is a system. I truly believe debt collection decision makers should move forward in updating their training programs to include the best language and strategies to create optimal connections.
Stick with me, and I’ll help you and your team learn how to address the needs and fears of the consumer.
Here are a few questions to consider:
Where is the consumer in their life? .
What are they dealing with emotionally?
Is your team trained to use the best language and the best scripts?
Are they able to put themselves in the shoes of the consumer?
Do they genuinely care about the consumer they are serving?
Wouldn’t it be nice to have a team that could develop a better connection with the consumer? Skills that would help them have more productive and successful outcomes on their collection calls.
Leslie mentioned it is a good idea to look at how your training manuals are written. She said often there is a tone that is not necessarily empathetic. Have you looked at your training manuals with a critical eye for empathy? If your training program is still teaching demanding concepts from days gone by, then maybe it’s time to look for a new training system.
Here’s how The Collection Advantage training program at maryshores.com can help you and your team in this evolving industry, call-by-call, day-by-day.
5 Quick and Easy Secrets In New Age Debt Collecting
I truly believe in The Collection Advantage series I developed. It is the complete A to Z Blueprint for creating better connections. The program focuses on five milestones that can help you update your training programs. Some of the concepts covered can help your team avoid conflict, enhance connections, and improve your bottom line. Here are five concepts covered in the program:
Mastering Human Emotions. Your agents will learn how to reduce conflict and motivate consumers to take action. This means fewer escalated calls for you and your managers.
The Strategy of the Communication Code. We share the scripts that allow your agents to take back control of tense calls. You'll see increased payments and reduced collector turnover.
Navigating the No. Your agents will discover how switching from negative to positive language creates more efficiency and secures higher monthly payments (even in their most challenging calls with consumers).
Payment Plans that Work. Your agents will learn my signature top-down negotiation strategy that results in higher monthly payment plans (expect to increase your payment arrangements by two or three times your monthly average).
Forging the Path to an Agreement. After you've completed the first four core milestones, you need to weave together all the concepts you learned to maximize your revenue. That’s where milestone five comes into play. It’s time to forge the path to the agreement by diving deeper into the concepts you’ve learned throughout the course.
So, how does your team get there? Let’s talk.
Book a call with me today.