Customers have to feel that they have been dealt with impartially and in a non-victimised way.
If they do feel badly treated, as a company, we need to make sure we have done nothing wrong and it’s more likely that they are unrealistic whingers. Treating Customers Fairly, however, is not bending over backwards.
We also have to make sure we squeeze every last available dime from them that isn’t going on food and non-priority debts.
Obviously, we don’t advertise this part as much as the Treating Customers Fairly bit.
How do you make sure your agents, account managers and phone monkeys are taking as many debit card payments as they possibly can, while ringing up and harassing people who owe dosh?
Well, I guess you’d pay them the average wage for a small satellite town, like Luton. You would then offer incentives, perhaps as much as 10% of their salary, if you hit a target amount of cash taken.
You could also run holiday incentives, such as an Easter Bumper Bingo Bonus competition or a Valentine’s Day ‘collect payments from three romantic names for a prize’ competition, such as Mr Love, Miss Kiss or a Ms Wankoff.
Or, over busy periods, have a competition to win a flat screen for taking the most amount of money.
Obviously there are certain provisos to this: the quality of the phone monkeys’ calls are monitored, sickness is taken into account etc. But at the end of the day, money is king.
It’s Glengarry Glen Ross and Tin Men meets Who Wants to be a Millionaire. Yes, it really is that glamorous.
Well…sort of.
The guys who usually win are the ones who can’t speak clearly, are aggressive and, urm, guys.
Clearly, the fact that the money collecting drones are rewarded better than the non-collecting area of the business is downplayed. As is the slightly customer unfriendly incentive system.
Don’t tell anyone, will you?
