Debt collection is a serious business so when it comes to writing about it, it tends to be a bit on the heavy side, light heartedness doesn’t just jump off the page, we have to dig deep for it, ‘it’s a kind of magic’ to try and make it interesting but I’ll have a go.

Those who read my blogs will know I sometimes like to adopt a musical theme, today is a Queen Day so enjoy!

So who would want to be a debt collector? Do they even exist anymore? The seismic shift of structure and process within collections departments corralling us into ‘one vision’ of being; has been as comprehensive as it has been needed.

‘I want it all’ spenders have been replaced by those struggling to make ends meet but who genuinely demonstrate an ‘I want to break free’ of my debt mindset. Debt Collectors roles have evolved considerably over the last few years, when once we ignored candidates with high customer service competencies, now we actively search them out and look to develop them.

So ‘don’t stop me now’ but I would go so far as to say that debt collectors have now become a combination of Confidant and Financial Advisers whose primary aim is to coax personal information out of the customer in order to set that customer on the right path.  Collection of owed money has now become secondary and if you haven’t got your teams skill sets in order then you risk your company going down as just  ‘another one bites the dust’

We have to run twice as fast to cover the same ground. Setting up payment plans is now a longer, more thorough and detailed process, compliance and quality monitoring is now more important than ever and forms the main objective of the exercise making collecting money secondary to making it time & resource hungry, Policies must be transparent and practices overt but as ever ‘the show must go on’.

Focus on bonus and incentives have also changed the positioning of debt collectors activities. Making the rewardable tasks the touchy feely explorative ones with punitive penalties for incidents of brusque and unfair treatment or for putting cash before the needs of the customer has meant collectors are now no longer playing hockey beating the life out of unpaid debt with a big stick but playing the more sedate but still fast paced badminton. There are no more ‘Killer Queens’ just ‘somebody to love’.

Look at the upside, yes collectors have had to undergo a steep learning curve to be retrained and for some old school collectors completely reprogrammed over a lengthy period of time, but we got there and the day to day is now less stressful, less fraught and dare I say more satisfying because we are dealing with people as we would wish to be dealt with ourselves. ‘These are the days of our lives’ and everyone deserves to be treated fairly.

And if that doesn’t give us pause to say we're the champions I don’t know what does.

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