Low cost, professional and robust debt collection service

Maximize your cash flow with a debt collection service as it is the lifeblood of every business. Obtaining new customers is just one part of the process. Ensuring that you get paid on time is just as important. Our debt collection service is part of a process that can meet the needs of companies with high volumes, low value outstanding debts or high value commercial debts.

A definition of emotional intelligence

The exceptional ability to manage one self and to build better relationships with colleagues and team members is vital for a successful influencer. Managers should be more aware of their own emotions, be sensitive to the feelings of others and always act with honesty and openness.
According to author Daniel Goldman we act with emotional intelligence when you are aware of and regulate your own emotions and when you are sensitive to the emotions of others. Managers should attempt to pay attention to the emotional state of the team in order to time assertions sensitively. They should obviously get to know their own moods as well.
An emotionally intelligent person understands his strengths and weaknesses and knows it is more productive to manage emotions rather than lead by them. When your team has full rapport, they become mutually responsive. This can be achieved by matching your counterparts’ body language and voice tone. Try to establish if you really have rapport by subtly mismatching your body language by speaking faster perhaps. If the other person copies you, it is a clear sign that you have good rapport and your team member is now open to your influence.
Fine tune your approach by paying attention to non-verbal behaviour, such as gestures and facial expressions. Be particularly mindful of non-verbal signals that may indicate a person is drawing away from you. Try searching for behavior that shows you when someone is moving towards your view.
Managers should insist on sharing their emotions and values on a project and encourage openness in return. Your team members will reciprocate this gesture and will more likely be open due to your sincerity.

How to manage creative people in your organization

Organizations need to employ people with acknowledged creative talent to assist managers to find solutions to problems. Management should recognize the benefits of working with specialist creative people and provide the appropriate environment for them to thrive in.
Specialist individuals are naturally creative as they have open minds, intense curiosity and high levels of energy. They tend to “see” more than us. Managers should identify situations where the team would benefit from employing these creative individuals to help find solutions to complex problems. It could mean time and money well spent.
If the problem is professional, such as you are unfulfilled in your job, you may consult a recruitment agency. For any organizational challenges, such as low productivity, a consultant with a track record for finding solutions to productivity problems may be invited to present his or her ideas.
Truly creative individuals tend to see themselves as gifted and in a class of their own and subsequently need freedom to work effectively. Avoid rejecting their ideas without considering them but provide a framework within which to work. Always outline clearly defined outcomes for their activities and supply the necessary resources. Remember, continually involve them at the forefront of the decision making process!

Effective Business Writing

Effective communication through writing is essential for anybody who yearns to progress in today’s competitive business environment. It is a valuable business tool that will certainly assist you in meeting those challenges.
Being able to write clearly is fundamental to business success as it contributes greatly achieving organizational goals. Crucial decisions may depend on written letters, reports and emails especially in an environment of global collaboration. This ability to take on board, change and process information is a formidable business skill.
The written word projects your professional image to many stakeholders and suppliers and your values, beliefs, ideologies and personality will echo on the other side. Furthermore, your knowledge, training, education, organizational skills and creativity will naturally manifest in the words and how they are presented. This information should be credible and supported by facts as your recipients must have
confidence in you and what you have written.
Contrary to popular belief, writing is by no means an old fashioned form of communication. In today’s electronic age, writing is a day-to-day necessity and perhaps even more important than ever. With the right skills, methods, models and lots of practice everyone in your organization can write creatively. Old fashioned or bureaucratic methods, however, persists which could hinder effective communication between colleagues and suppliers. Let us not forget that the aim is to produce communications that are well written, not pedantic or convoluted, but rather interesting to read which will motivate and inspire.

Avoiding confrontation with colleagues

Avoiding confrontation with a difficult person may be an appropriate option when the implications are too high. Understanding how to avoid confrontation enables management to choose the best response at any given moment.
Difficult individuals react to criticism by being aggressive and obstructive which can have a destructive effect on the goals of the organization. Once a colleague becomes overtly aggressive it becomes a futile exercise to pursue further dialogue in these situations. It would be easier to simply “walk away” giving both parties the opportunity for angry feelings to subside and for you to consider approaching the problem objectively. This could be done successfully by making an appointment to meet with the affected party at the earliest possible date.
Working around a difficult person could be tempting but this could possibly reward this irrational behavior. Attempt not to enforce this precedent as this difficult person may not be regarded as part of the team. Not sharing the same responsibilities will naturally have adverse effects on the rest of the team.
Pretending not to notice misconduct may prove successful if that person wishes to remain part of the team. Withdrawing eye contact to indicate disapproval is enough to signal dissatisfaction. However, avoidance tactics may work once or twice in the short term but it is hardly a successful long term strategy.

Observing difficult people in the business environment

Observing difficult individuals in the business environment who are about to become difficult should give valuable insights into what their reasons might be, enables managers to pre-empt them. Managers should take this opportunity to turn potential conflict into an anticipated exchange of understanding and co-operation.
Physical evidence of stress tend to manifest itself such as an upset stomach and indigestion, neck or chest pain or others might simply become difficult rather than admitting to feeling unwell or under stress.
When observing fellow workers, managers should determine whether team members are protecting responsibilities they have acquired rather than completing tasks. Trust should be built between team members by defining goals and sharing views openly.
Organizations simply cannot take their customers for granted even their customers for granted, even their long standing clients may leave for a competitor. Managers should assess how much involvement and feedback those customers need. Most customers evidently do not enjoy complaining, but if not satisfied the inevitable would take place. This would be probably due to a long history of disappointment. Ensure that everyone in the team understands your organization’s customer service standards and allow recognition to be given to those who deliver excellent customer service.
Professional advisors could add value by giving an objective perspective on management and your team. Assess how sensitive they are to any defensiveness in management or team members at the beginning of the project. Some questions could be asked to test how realistic management really is regarding expectations. Use this opportunity to clarify these objections and managers should subsequently determine what is needed from these advisors. Attempt to observe how well they are performing and how quickly they detect issues as well as facts.
Once suppliers are becoming difficult it could be due to something you have done or omitted to do. Typical issues would be payment and these conditions should be agreed upon at the beginning of the business relationship as well as the levels of service expected and the terms within which you will pay. Suppliers need constant feedback if their service level drops in order to give them the opportunity to improve. Developing these good working relationships could mean that they could likely be of more assistance during difficult times.
When observing yourself constantly maintain a balance between the tension of wanting to excel as an individual with the need to be a fully contributing team player. Ensure that you are balancing your development as an individual with your work within team. Management would do well to continuously share their knowledge with the rest of the team in order to be collectively more effective.

Staff Motivation

Managers need to determine what motivates their staff or why there is a lack thereof. This understanding to meet team members’ needs should be used in order to reach their goals as well as those of the team.
The rule is quite simple – team members work more effectively when they feel motivated – and become difficult when they are not. Remember, these employees will collectively contribute to organizational growth when they are motivated. The manager subsequently plays the most important role in successful employee relations and they should be aware of the different ways in which people are motivated. They will need to identify which actions will motivate the different individuals in the team and which are demotivating them in order to improve organizational success.
Clear instructions should be given on team aims and objectives should be initially established with team members. We all need a sense of achievement and do not wish to fail meeting objectives, so individual needs should be identified for training to reach the required standards. Team members should be coached to develop their performance and learn new skills. This can be achieved by giving them more control over their work and how it is done by allowing them to perform more complex tasks. Managers who support and encourage these people to work together and show appreciation for work well done will create team spirit and team members who apparently motivate each other.
Managers need to be aware of the team’s workload and what support individuals need in order to do their job well. Once objectives are unclear and people are uncertain about what is expected from them, they may appear difficult when they do not take action or do the wrong thing. Managers should allow these individuals to participate in making decisions about the roles and the way they carry out these jobs.
A positive approach to communication need to be encouraged between team members so that they may support each other and ultimately become more effective as a team.

Dealing with difficult people at the workplace

Managers should explore new approaches to lead difficult individuals through periods of low productivity and embrace it as an essential management skill. This skill will equip the new or experienced manager with techniques and strategies to enable them to anticipate people, prevent conflict from escalating and assist awkward staff to ultimately become proactive members in a successful team.
Difficult employees certainly do exist. These difficult individuals at the workplace will prevent managers and colleagues from achieving their goals and tend to absorb the time and energy of the rest of the team. The earlier management can identify who will be difficult and when, the better their chances are of dealing with them successfully. They will need to know what make these individuals so difficult.
Everybody reacts differently to pressure and we all have different expectations in life. We may at times find it hard to deal with somebody who has embraced a contrary set of innate values. Once we understand ourselves and others better, we should be able not to judge others because of our latent differences. We should then attempt to stop changing them but instead to value others’ contributions.
Managers may be able to anticipate who is most likely to become difficult at the workplace in two ways: from observing people’s behavior and from your own personal knowledge of them. Once you know your staff well, it is possible to avoid difficulties when pressure points arise and adequate preparation will be made to offer support and development in the workplace.
By spotting these recurrent patterns, you can reduce events in the workplace that trigger stress and prepare yourself for resolving these challenges. Managers should also look at their own management style as well as how they are organizing work, reviewing objections and developing a supportive culture in order to prevent employees becoming unnecessarily difficult. Although different perspectives bring complimentary skills to any group they could possibly cause conflict so management need to understand individual differences in order to deal with these difficult personalities successfully.
Individuals tend to have different ways of learning as well. None of us intend to be difficult, we just have different ways of looking at things. It is useful to have people with preferences for different ways of learning though in your team.
Irrespective of our age, people are thought to approach the world from the perspective of the parent, who assumes that blame lies with the other person, the adult, who assesses situations logically, or the child, who feels he is to blame when a problem arises. We tend to switch constantly between these viewpoints. Conflict arises when someone communicating from one of these perspectives receives a response from someone with a different one leading to angry, upset or withdrawn behavior. Managers should take this opportunity to turn potential conflict into an exchange of understanding and co-operation. If a team member suddenly becomes difficult, irritable or angry than usual, this could be a sign of emotional stress. Once you have established that the problem is personal you can suggest various sources of external advice. These individuals become difficult when they have lost the ability to feel or care through much stress.
Managers need to also understand what motivates difficult team members and their role in the lack of motivated staff. Effective communication moves these relationships forward and helps people to work together successfully.

Who is The Do-It-Now Person?

Who is The Do-It-Now Person?

The customer is not always right

The customer is always “right” does not necessarily apply to the debt collection industry. It is completely the customer’s fault that they are in that unfortunate situation. Do not allow customer service benchmarking to affect the purpose of your call as customers could easily walk all over you. You can’t also, however, assume and state that the customer is wrong. Most collectors are in a desk on a phone and commission rates are dependent on that customer staying on the phone and paying that bill, not who is right or wrong.