Visiting your debtors has many advantages

It’s as old as humanity: dialogue is more productive than injunction! This is especially true in debt collection. In this context, visiting your debtors is a decisive tool, especially in times of pandemic where understanding plays a key role more than ever.

The advantages of the visit

By meeting with him, you give the debtor one last chance to explain himself, which confirms your ethics and your socially responsible attitude. Usually, a debtor will appreciate this chance to explain circumstances.

The pandemic and its measures have not only had predictable consequences, but also unexpected consequences for people and their finances. Meeting (in compliance with sanitary measures) people in default of payment facilitates the understanding of situations and promotes adapted solutions.

Visiting allows you to assess whether there are valid disputes or some other real issues that are preventing payment.

In any case, a visit is particularly useful before going to court because it saves you from spending on unnecessary legal costs. This dialogue process speeds up recovery compared to more formal solutions (where the debtor doesn’t feel he’s being heard).

The difficulties of the visit

The person you need to meet is not always present. A consultant makes between 20 and 30 visits a day in a specific area. Making appointments is difficult because these debtors are often not responding on phone calls or written communication but also because of the planning involved (implying to know how long the visit will take) and possible traffic delays. Besides, too many people forget the appointment or have a last-minute priorities.

Some debtors might also find a visit too confrontational if it had to be planned, in contrast to the reality where open-minded, informed visitors often manage to break the ice quickly.

So, we go unannounced. If our visitors do not find anyone, they leave a letter asking to contact us.

Obviously, this is a time-consuming activity: getting there, parking and ringing the doorbell often takes longer than the visit itself.

How to organize the success of the visits?

It is essential to know your claim details: who owes what to whom and for what reason? Obviously, knowing who you should contact, the content of previous communications (promises to pay / payment plans / problems, …), etc. yields better results.  Have copies of basic documents (invoice, purchase order, sales conditions, communication between parties, etc. depending on the situation).

At TCM, all this data is available in the “visits”applicationon the consultants iPad.  All information that the visitor can collect is also updated and available to the internal employees and the creditor, and can be consulted in our onlinecredit management system. It is not only useful that the visitor is fully aware of the situation, our credit controllers must also be able to respond quickly after the visit.

Be positive, patient, and listen. If you are irritated or in a hurry to make this visit, it is unlikely to be successful. But if you have the social streak, the one that makes you enjoy meeting people and finding solutions with them, this job is for you!

Naturally, you are there to cash in, which can be considered unpleasant. But in fact, it is not this situation that is unpleasant (payments have to be made anyway and the amicable way is obviously better for both parties), it is people and their attitudes that sometimes can be. For example, are you angry at the supermarket cashier or the restaurant owner who presents you with the bill for the meal? It’s not a question of money, but a question of people. Our visits take place in a constructive atmosphere, even when the circumstances are difficult.

Visitors should also write down what has been said and agreed. It is useful if ultimately no payment or immediate solution can be obtained on site

After an immediate payment, the debtor always receives a receipt. Payments can be made in cash or via bancontact. Our visitors carry a e-payment device with them.

Follow up on the file to see if the promises are kept. And if this is not the case, legal action remains possible if necessary and useful, and the visit will have allowed you to better appreciate if it is useful! Legal action represents 1% of cases at TCM!

Statistics

Best times of the day:

It’s difficult to organize visits so that you can knock on each door at the best possible time. But if we could, the best times for visiting are as follows. However, the differences are not very significant.

Best days of the week and best month of the year:

There really isn’t a better day of the week that emerges. Likewise, no month seems more favourable than another, neither for the attendance rate, nor for the payment rate.

Best times of the month:

B2C: The start of the month is slightly better than the end of the month, with the highest score on the 8th day of the month.

B2B: no significant trend.

Payments on site in cash or by credit card?

For payments, the electronic part is increasing. The progression in 2020, confirmed in the first months of 2021, seems to confirm that the pandemic favours electronic payment.

Fortunately, we take little cash and usually small amounts. These are directly deposited in a bank close to the place of payment.

Conclusion

Visiting debtors is an essential part of debt collection. This activity has several advantages:

• Social: the face-to-face conversation, therefore the visit, plays down the situation and allows solutions that are more realistic. And the creditor emphasizes his willingness to settle amicably.
• Community: the visit-to-debtors activity spares the taxpayer from financing overloaded courts, in both situations with or without payment from the debtor.
• Economical: the creditor obtains a solution more quickly (whether the result is a payment, a dispute or an uncollectible claim). It avoids procedural costs.

I would like to close this contribution with a thank you to our on-site brokers for their energy and kindness, which are indispensable to the success of our debt collection process.

I take this opportunity to thank our negotiators for their kindness and energy. They are essential to the success of our debt collection process.

27 April 2021

Note on electric cars

The taxation of professional cars is very unfavourable to this activity of visits, which artificially increases costs (In Belgium, only about 62% of the car purchase, maintenance, fuel, and even VAT is deductible from our company income). The current tax preference is for electric vehicles (100% deductible) despite a questionable ecological record. But, this solution is impracticable for this activity (our negotiators drive 80,000 km / year per car).

It’s as old as humanity: dialogue is more productive than injunction! This is especially true in debt collection. In this context, visiting your debtors is a decisive tool, especially in times of pandemic where understanding plays a key role more than ever.

The advantages of the visit

By meeting with him, you give the debtor one last chance to explain himself, which confirms your ethics and your socially responsible attitude. Usually, a debtor will appreciate this chance to explain circumstances.

The pandemic and its measures have not only had predictable consequences, but also unexpected consequences for people and their finances. Meeting (in compliance with sanitary measures) people in default of payment facilitates the understanding of situations and promotes adapted solutions.

Visiting allows you to assess whether there are valid disputes or some other real issues that are preventing payment.

In any case, a visit is particularly useful before going to court because it saves you from spending on unnecessary legal costs. This dialogue process speeds up recovery compared to more formal solutions (where the debtor doesn’t feel he’s being heard).

The difficulties of the visit

The person you need to meet is not always present. A consultant makes between 20 and 30 visits a day in a specific area. Making appointments is difficult because these debtors are often not responding on phone calls or written communication but also because of the planning involved (implying to know how long the visit will take) and possible traffic delays. Besides, too many people forget the appointment or have a last-minute priorities.

Some debtors might also find a visit too confrontational if it had to be planned, in contrast to the reality where open-minded, informed visitors often manage to break the ice quickly.

So, we go unannounced. If our visitors do not find anyone, they leave a letter asking to contact us.

Obviously, this is a time-consuming activity: getting there, parking and ringing the doorbell often takes longer than the visit itself.

How to organize the success of the visits?

It is essential to know your claim details: who owes what to whom and for what reason? Obviously, knowing who you should contact, the content of previous communications (promises to pay / payment plans / problems, …), etc. yields better results.  Have copies of basic documents (invoice, purchase order, sales conditions, communication between parties, etc. depending on the situation).

At TCM, all this data is available in the “visits”applicationon the consultants iPad.  All information that the visitor can collect is also updated and available to the internal employees and the creditor, and can be consulted in our onlinecredit management system. It is not only useful that the visitor is fully aware of the situation, our credit controllers must also be able to respond quickly after the visit.

Be positive, patient, and listen. If you are irritated or in a hurry to make this visit, it is unlikely to be successful. But if you have the social streak, the one that makes you enjoy meeting people and finding solutions with them, this job is for you!

Naturally, you are there to cash in, which can be considered unpleasant. But in fact, it is not this situation that is unpleasant (payments have to be made anyway and the amicable way is obviously better for both parties), it is people and their attitudes that sometimes can be. For example, are you angry at the supermarket cashier or the restaurant owner who presents you with the bill for the meal? It’s not a question of money, but a question of people. Our visits take place in a constructive atmosphere, even when the circumstances are difficult.

Visitors should also write down what has been said and agreed. It is useful if ultimately no payment or immediate solution can be obtained on site

After an immediate payment, the debtor always receives a receipt. Payments can be made in cash or via bancontact. Our visitors carry a e-payment device with them.

Follow up on the file to see if the promises are kept. And if this is not the case, legal action remains possible if necessary and useful, and the visit will have allowed you to better appreciate if it is useful! Legal action represents 1% of cases at TCM!

Statistics

Best times of the day:

It’s difficult to organize visits so that you can knock on each door at the best possible time. But if we could, the best times for visiting are as follows. However, the differences are not very significant.

Best days of the week and best month of the year:

There really isn’t a better day of the week that emerges. Likewise, no month seems more favourable than another, neither for the attendance rate, nor for the payment rate.

Best times of the month:

B2C: The start of the month is slightly better than the end of the month, with the highest score on the 8th day of the month.

B2B: no significant trend.

Payments on site in cash or by credit card?

For payments, the electronic part is increasing. The progression in 2020, confirmed in the first months of 2021, seems to confirm that the pandemic favours electronic payment.

Fortunately, we take little cash and usually small amounts. These are directly deposited in a bank close to the place of payment.

Conclusion

Visiting debtors is an essential part of debt collection. This activity has several advantages:

• Social: the face-to-face conversation, therefore the visit, plays down the situation and allows solutions that are more realistic. And the creditor emphasizes his willingness to settle amicably.
• Community: the visit-to-debtors activity spares the taxpayer from financing overloaded courts, in both situations with or without payment from the debtor.
• Economical: the creditor obtains a solution more quickly (whether the result is a payment, a dispute or an uncollectible claim). It avoids procedural costs.

I would like to close this contribution with a thank you to our on-site brokers for their energy and kindness, which are indispensable to the success of our debt collection process.

I take this opportunity to thank our negotiators for their kindness and energy. They are essential to the success of our debt collection process.

27 April 2021

Note on electric cars

The taxation of professional cars is very unfavourable to this activity of visits, which artificially increases costs (In Belgium, only about 62% of the car purchase, maintenance, fuel, and even VAT is deductible from our company income). The current tax preference is for electric vehicles (100% deductible) despite a questionable ecological record. But, this solution is impracticable for this activity (our negotiators drive 80,000 km / year per car).