Quite often I’ll have to talk to someone who is terminally ill.
Depending on their prognosis, they might want to get their affairs in order or, more likely and realistically, they really don’t want to be harassed for money because they have something a bit more pressing on their mind.
The only way to talk to anyone, let alone someone with a serious illness, is with respect. And to listen properly, while making sure you ask the right questions.
People don’t mind talking about themselves or what they are going through if you are straight forward and courteous.
If someone is ill, what business is it of a mortgage company to know about their medical condition?
Well, none really, unless it means we can help by at least taking one worry out of the equation.
So, if we find out that is what is happening in a customer’s life, we do ask for medical evidence, such as a GP’s letter or similar.
However, we ask with the intention of using that to prove to the big bosses that this customer is genuine and we need to do something with their account.
That something, in a case like that, would normally be a dead account.
We stop chasing the customer for money, leave them alone and freeze the interest on their account. This is the only sensible response on moral grounds and on business grounds.
These dead accounts can be used for various reasons, not just when it is a terminal illness.
For example, long-term debilitating illnesses, where the property has been modified or adapted or the prognosis is just continual deterioration in their medical condition.
Or sometimes just age. Who wants to see a 95-year-old lose his home?
The account remains in stasis until the reason ends, whether through a customer moving home or passing away.
Some aspects of my job can be horrible, so the parts where we’re allowed to act on a more human level gain more poignancy.
