Two Powerful Words in Credit Card Collections

Steve Coyle

When I train new card collectors many of them suffer from either a lack of assertiveness (the ‘rabbits’) or an abundance of aggression (the ‘tigers’). The rabbits feel uncomfortable asking cardholders to pay. Instead, they ask cardholders how much and when they can pay. In the process, they lose control of the call which results in less money collected. In contrast, the tigers want to teach cardholders a lesson. They tell me things like, “It’s their own damn fault if they went crazy with the card.” In the process, they damage relationships, also collect less, and expose the company to legal risks.

As a new collector, I was a rabbit. I felt I needed to be excessively nice to people. I politely asked them to pay and I’d let them set the negotiating amounts or ‘anchors’. At the end of the month, I had made many new debtor friends, but I also had one of the lowest dollars collected on my team. My debtors were paying me as they pay their own friends.

So I made a change.

I decided to change from being Mr. Nice Guy to being Attila the Hungry. I became a tiger. I became a meat-eater. I told people what to do and when. I didn’t fall for any sob stories. They had to pay or else. At the end of the day, I walked out of the building stressed to the point of almost shaking. I hated my job. At the end of the month, I had made many new debtor enemies —  and I still had one of the lowest dollars collected on my team. At my employer, if you don’t collect the average for the team for three months, you’re fired. I had only one more month to avoid being fired.

So I made another change.

This time I decided that I wasn’t calling customers to get money, or to become friends, or to become enemies. I was calling customers to help them. I wanted to help customers avoid late charges, legal action, poor credit reporting, stressful collection calls, and many other issues. Two of the key words in my daily collection arsenal became ‘help’ and ‘sorry’.

If debtors told me they couldn’t pay the full balance today because they were having a problem, the first word out of my mouth was ‘sorry’. I would quickly follow it up with, “However, I’m trying to help you avoid ___________.” I found that if I didn’t use the word ‘help’ when explaining negative actions, many debtors could get hostile as they thought I was threatening them.

I usually don’t believe in magic words in card collections, but if there are any, for me, they are ‘sorry’ and ‘help’.

The psychologist Robert B. Cialdini writes about the power of influencing, and one of the most powerful influencing factors we can use with our debtors is the power of reciprocity. Humans have an innate desire to reciprocate. Whether it is responding with “Good morning” after someone else wishes you that or saying “thank you” after someone has held the door open. We can’t help ourselves. How do you feel when you get a free sample at the grocery store from a promoter, then walk away without buying?

When we say ‘sorry,’ we offer empathy. Most humans feel obligated to that bit of kindness and, I’m hopeful, respond in kind. Sometimes these calls last five minutes or longer. We hear all kinds of problems, but by offering your time, it’s easier to get cardholders’ time to listen to you when they have stopped speaking. I find debtors more willing to listen to my solutions once I have taken the time to listen to their problems. This merges nicely into my next word: Help.

When we say ‘help’, we offer assistance.  I want debtors to see me as a partner and not as an enemy. Ideally, I would like us to work on their overcome this non-payment issue together.

As a trainer, I have found that I can make ‘nice’ card collectors into confident, assertive card collectors. But, I have found that I can’t make ‘tough’ card collectors into empathetic, helpful ones. Card issuers need to ensure the collectors they hire already show basic empathy and customer service skills. If they can’t, don’t hire them because you will spend a lot of time training and coaching them. Why not recommend them a sales career instead?  (Sorry, I couldn’t help resist the sales jab).

I hope your card collectors strive to be neither rabbits nor tigers, but simply humans, by using two simple but powerful words: ‘Sorry’ and ‘Help’.

Steve Coyle CCE is an American collection trainer and writer based in Malaysia. He’s the author of Debt Collections: Stir-Fried or Deep-Fried? available on Amazon.