If there is one distinguishing trend in today's collection strategies, it's a determination to treat overdue accounts as customers rather than debtors. This means trying to find ways to get a debt paid and still keep the account buying from your company, and there are several good reasons to treat your overdue accounts with a light touch:

Temporary difficulties. "Of all our customers, fewer than 4% are delinquent at any given time," says one collection manager. "Many of these are in collections for the first time. Most of these customers are not deadbeats. They're experiencing temporary financial difficulties that will be resolved. They want to preserve their credit, and they're willing to cooperate if you handle the situation from a customer service approach rather than a combative one."

More than one creditor. "Once customers fall behind in payments with us, we realize that they are likely to be delinquent with a number of other creditors," says another manager. "A customer service attitude can mean that we--rather than other creditors--will be the first to be paid once customers get back on their feet."

Communication increases goodwill. "I really think of myself as a financial adviser," says one collector. "A customer service attitude means that I listen to customers and they listen to me. It's amazing. Once they know that I'm not their adversary, I can often help them find sources of money that they haven't thought of, and we work out payment arrangements that they can keep."

Less stress. "A customer service attitude is just less stressful for me," says another collector. "I used to take a very superior attitude with delinquent customers. Now I've learned to be nicer, and you really do attract more flies with honey! When I am friendly with customers, they're more likely to cooperate with me--and my whole job is less stressful."

No Quick Fix
If you have collectors who are using the traditional approach to collecting and you would like them to become more customer service oriented, there's no substitute for training. Here are some specific tips to help you get your collectors on the customer service track:

1. Remind collectors of the positive role they play in keeping credit affordable and working with customers to help them through difficult times.
2. Cultivate professional behavior including good listening skills, self-motivation, assertiveness (rather than aggressiveness), and positive attitudes.
3. Develop a collection call pattern that supports a customer service approach including educating and motivating customers and working with the customer to negotiate successful solutions.
4. Encourage positive phrasing for questions: What day did you send the payment? or What's the check number? rather than Did you really send a check?
5. Work to improve collectors' telephone personalities and voice image (tone, volume, and rate of speaking).
6. Help collectors understand the reasons for delinquency. Teach them to differentiate between short-term problems such as unexpected expenses and long-term difficulties such as serious illness. Teach them how to adjust their collection approach to fit the reason for delinquency.
7. Give collectors customer service tools, including negotiation skills, good questioning skills, knowledge of various sources of money, and basic approaches to educating and motivating customers.
8. Train collectors to handle difficult situations such as purchase disputes and hardship cases.
9. Give collectors skills for dealing with angry customers in a calm and effective manner. Also, teach them to handle calls so that they don't incite customer anger.
10. Consider job stress. Provide reinforcement, positive feedback, and stress-reduction techniques to help collectors maintain a customer service attitude.