Technique of the week

Stay in Control of the Collections Call

There should never be any doubt in your mind that you must be in control of the telephone conversation. It is your job to see to it that the discussions with your customer move purposefully towards a positive outcome and most usually, a promise for payment.

There are several techniques you can employ to guide the conversation and this is a subject we cover in more detail at our complimentary collection seminars. Why not get along to one soon?

You should always be alert for those times in a conversation when one subject has been adequately discussed and the time is right to move on to the next . For example, your customer has explained that their business is experiencing cash flow problems and you have asked the customer for some details. You now have sufficient information but the customer seems unwilling to move on to a point of negotiation.
 
You must now in your own words, summarize the customer's position and follow it immediately with a question leading to the next point of the discussion. Sometimes the change of subject may seem to come abruptly, but don't let this concern you. You are expected to cover a number of issues during a telephone call and unless you are prepared to take control and move the conversation forward, there is a danger that some subjects may be over stated.

Of course, you must allow your customer to express themselves fully. It is important for you to completely appreciate their position and situation in order to respond with the appropriate strategies. But it's equally important you maintain a firm control of what subjects are discussed and to what extent. The ability to politely control a conversation is a skill possessed by the very best and most successful credit controllers.

If guiding a conversation is not one of your natural talents, give careful thought to the techniques outlined above. The key to guiding the conversation is to ask questions.

I'm sure you have experienced the customers who want to dominate the conversation themselves. Gaining control can easily be obtained by using open, closed, alternative choice and closing questions. By asking the question, you focus the customer and switch their thinking to the new subject in order to give you a response.
 

• Open Questions - Or sometimes called probing questions, help you to get information from your customer. What, when, where, why, who and how. Ask a question starting with these words and the customer cannot simply say yes or no. The customer will be encouraged to respond with information.

• Closed Questions - gets a simple yes or no response. Can you...? Will you...? Are you...? Is it fair to...? Have I...? You get the idea. We are trying to get information without being distracted or encouraging long sentence replies.

• Alternative Choice Questions - Giving customer's a choice seems a more reasonable way of guiding the conversation. Offer alternatives like, will you be paying by credit card or cheque? It's less likely that another option will be chosen by your customer if you are offering alternatives.

• Closing Questions - It's good practice to end a call by way of asking a question or questions. It's a way of checking that the customer has fully understood what arrangement has now been reached. Can you confirm the day you'll be sending the payment? Can I just check you have the right address to send the payment to?

Ok, now you have some ideas, practice the techniques with the next customer you speak with. Practice, practice, practice. Do you think you can improve your effectiveness? (Closing question!).

Contact us for more information about our training programs, protocols, credit management materials and resources.

 COME BACK FOR MORE NEW IDEAS - NEXT WEEK!