Being an Adult

I was drawn to writing this blog on hearing of the sad news of the death of the mother of one my previous Directors.

Many years ago when I was working as the Client Services Manager for another firm of debt collectors, I wasn’t offered a contract as the Directors told me on many occasions that I was a friend and I didn’t need one. This was all well and good when I started working for them, but very quickly I discovered in business you cannot be friends with your employers. After a couple of years of being constantly being told that I was not worth the money I was being paid and constant running down of suggestions, I did what any sane person should do and found an escape route.

The Directors were not best pleased when they realised that I was moving to another agency, especially when they realised by not having a contract they could not stop me from speaking to, or visiting anyone I chose to. It upset them even more when they discovered that some preferred what was being offered by the new agency. My ex-directors tried many ways of stopping my new employers including reporting them to the OFT for not having a Consumer Credit Licence, when in fact they did.

About a year later when my then parent company decided to pull out of the UK, I decided with the approval of my current directors’ to set up Deanem Collections Ltd . One of the first things I tried to do was to hold out an olive branch to my previous employers unfortunately, all I got back from them was hostility that “I was stealing the food from my previous colleagues plates”. I also heard that they had wanted to break my legs!

I found it fascinating that one particular director has gone out of his way to avoid any form of contact including crossing the road and the silliest turning around and leaving a shop when he saw me or my family were already shopping. One day I managed to corner him & his wife in a local supermarket when I said “Hello” he ignored me, when I said “Hello” for a second time he screamed “Don’t you talk to me, you’re stealing my customers”.

Over the years since leaving their employ one of the other directors had seemed to have accepted what had happened and we had had some interesting and friendly conversations. If he ever saw my family in the street he always appeared to be genuinely happy to see them. Unfortunately, I recently lost my father and while the 2nd director sent condolences via my wife, when he saw me he totally blanked me. Just goes to show how petty and small minded some people are.

When I heard the news of the death of my previous employers’ mother, my first action was to do nothing, but on reflection I think as an adult I may send a note of condolence to his father.

Tracing, a case study

I thought that you would be interested in this case study of how a debt collection agency works when instructed to carry out a trace and collection

Our client in this case is a housing association the debtor being John Smith, according to the information John was born 8 May 1958 and left the property during June 2009 owing £1800. On first view John did not appear to be linked to the property or with the person shown on the electoral roll being Jane. When we carried out a name check we found that John was linked to an address in the area during 2007. When we drilled down further we found also present at this property was Jane. In addition, we found that they were married during 2005. This information confirmed John’s link to the property.

Using our data bases we identified Janes’ current address and we wrote to her. When she received the letter, Jane called in quite upset. It turned out that John had had a heart attack at our clients’ address and was pronounced dead at the scene during April 2009. What upset Jane most was not our letter, but that our client had sent her a condolence card and when she found it too distressing to continue to live there, our client offered to re-house her. She sent us a copy of John’s death certificate which we forwarded to our client on receipt. When our client investigated they agreed that John had died, more importantly there had been no arrears and the debt was written off.

We then suggested to our client that as Jane was quite distressed and while we would send Jane a letter of apology, they should also send one. I was delighted to learn from Jane that she also received a bunch of flowers.

If you would like to find out if we can find your missing debtor, please visit our website www.deanemcollections.co.uk

Does being short listed for an award improve business?

I was delighted when my company was recently shortlisted for the 2nd year running for the prestigious award Tracing Team of the Year at this years’ Debt Collection awards. The ceremony is being held on 18 November at Nottingham Belfry Hotel.

The short listing has prompted a number of people to ask if just being shortlisted is sufficient as there can only be one winner. I have been advised by a friend who is on panel of another trade award, that awards are generally won by companies meeting & satisfying quite stringent requirements.

The first is has the nominee have a good reputation? The judges will only considered you worthy if this confirmed by testimonials provided by your clients. Secondly, what effort has been made by the nominee to improve the level of service provided or the level of staff training.

In our case in addition to some amazing testamonials, our nomination papers showed that in the last year we had increased the level of training that the tracing team undertook from quarterly to weekly case review sessions.

While not expecting to win this year, by being short listed I’ve been told by our existing clients that it has confirmed that they were right in their decision to use our services. Another wonderful by-product of being short listed is that it makes companies who are considering utilising your services feel more comfortable to try you out. This has been borne out by the fact that last year we attracted 4 new clients on the strength of being short listed and this year we have been approached by a further 5.

So my answer to the question is yes. Yes being short listed has a beneficial effect on your business.

For more information about our tracing service, please visit www.deanemcollections.co.uk.