Don’t Worry Be Happy
In collecting money from delinquent accounts, it is a key principle to preserve goodwill with the customer. We want to collect the money by practicing the three P’s — by being professional, pleasant, and persistent. But, at the same time, we also want to maintain a good relationship with our customer. We also want to maintain a good reputation.
Just because some of your customers (clients, patients, members, etc.) are having a problem today, it does not necessarily mean they won’t be good customers in the future. And I think most marketing professionals will tell you that is costs a lot more money to find new customers than it does to hang on to the ones we already have.
Michael Coleman, the author of “The Collection Management Handbook”, says that statistically:
If everyone were like the 80% who pay on time, we would never have any collection problems. All you have to do with those customers is to keep them happy.
And don’t Worry about the 2% who never intend to pay you. Turn them over for collections. Take them to court. But don’t waste your precious time on them. They are actually trying to defraud you.
Where we, as accounts receivable professionals and people who collect money, can really do some good is with the 18% in the middle who intend to pay us but just don’t think that they can right now. But they have a problem, and we have to help them solve it.
So if you want to collect a lot more money faster, and at the same time maintain goodwill with your customers, you have to stop thinking of yourself as a collector and start thinking of yourself as a problem solver.
Always use language with your customer similar to this, “I know together we can get this problem solved.” With those simple words the debtor is no longer thinking of you as a collector. In the debtor’s eyes, you are now a problem solver. And you’re working with your debtor on the same side of the table to try to get the problem solved.
That’s what successful accounts receivable professionals do. They work to get their debtors on their side in an effort to get the problem solved. And an additional benefit may be that, instead of having a deadbeat debtor, you have a customer for life.
Larry Holmes invites you to visit larrydholmes.com. You will learn about the culture of money: making it, investing it, managing it and collecting it.
Bobby McFerrin – Don’t Worry Be Happy