Archives 2016

Apply ‘soft-skill technique’ in line with the global paradigm shift

Five years ago out of a previous experience I took sole responsibility to reach out to the UAE debtor community to try to resolve their debt-crisis problems, where over the years I helped many families to restore their financial situation to absolute recovery.

However at that time I had no clue of the term ‘remedial’ because for me it was instinctive to relentlessly persue this path, but I realised that people facing a debt-crisis were more susceptible to accepting this new technique I applied to convince them to take responsibility and ownership of their problem and apply the necessary action to get them out of debt and it worked!

Fast forward over the latter three years and creditors have suddenly realised that this is the most effective action to take where besides the outcome being that the debtors are able to comfortably repay their debt and that it is a win-win situation for both parties, the outcome of the process also teaches them human compassion and empathy, regardless of whether the situation was self-inflicted or not.

I have personally had heads of departments tell me that they also felt good and walked away feeling like they accomplished something significant by fully supporting a debtor by deriving at an amicable solution for both parties.

However, this is not my subject today, as these individuals are far and few in between, even today.

What I found was the following which left me cold to understand that there is absolutely no conscience of inflicting human pain onto a debtor when the action was unnecessary.

Most creditors have no clue of the emotional turmoil a debtor faces when all roads are blocked and where it did not have to be this way.

One fundamental principle in life is when you are in a position of strength, then refrain from wielding your power when the outcome of your actions is that you could destroy a life as this form of action is linked to dues you pay later in your life when you least expect it.

Here’s a latest creditor policy that needs dire reviewing:

1.     When a debtor requests a consolidation and/or restructure then it is understood that it is a time-consuming process, give or take 1 to 2 months, where I have experienced 6 months for one of my clients.

2.     During this time collections dues are ongoing and that is normal financial policy. However some creditors are able to put these payments on hold whilst request no 1 is in process, awaiting a final decision and once approved, the debtor may be required to make a down payment, which is fully acceptable.

3.     The problem arises when the debtor finds it apt to pursue legal action whilst request no 1 is in progress. This means bouncing the guarantee cheque and instituting legal action.

4.     So now the debtor is forced to meet the legal action payment request from the creditor before:

a.     The legal action instituted can be retracted where the payable amount is normally not only unrealistic but out of the means of the debtor, where the legal action taken against the debtor is at the most critical stage and cannot comply.

b.     If approved then the request no 1 will not be issued or signed by the creditor unless payment ‘a’ above is made.

What now?

The debtor has no way of meeting this legal action payment request so the outcome is:

a.     The instituted legal action takes its course where the debtor will face the legal consequences with the probability of losing their job and finally losing all;

b.     The debtor will never be afforded the opportunity to civilly and respectfully honour their debt payment commitments as they now do not have the means to repay the debt due to facing legal action and losing their job.

Tell me how many creditor employees even have an inkling of a notion of the sad, humiliating, degrading situation they inflict on debtors when the situation could have had an absolute ‘Remedial’ outcome, where both parties achieved their goals and a life was spared?

The key question I ask is how come creditor organizations are so out of sync that their systems are not even updated accordingly as to the progress of request no 1, where most of the time the co-ordination is non-existent and ‘nobody knows where request no 1 is, nobody knows who bounced the cheque, some will say legal action is stopped, some will call to detail the legal action in the most derogative way to victimize the debtor and think nothing of their bad actions inflicted on the debtor, including the increased emotional fear piling up on the debtors head, which then has other negative repercussions that could have been avoided’.

Creditors, understand debtors are still the people who ensure you have a job today, because without them you too would be joining them. Yet some of you assume you are immune to this form of suffering in the future and this is where you are absolutely wrong.

Debtors can receive ‘windfalls’, in some instances they can experience some form of good fortune in the form of a better job, bonus, incentive, whatever, but if they hold onto a positive form of existence then for sure their life will change and so will their situation because they have the ability to change it anytime, with the correct mind-set.

It’s not nice to place people into a bad situation with no regard or no conscience simply because:

i.     It’s the easy way out to lose the problem, regardless of the human consequences;

ii.     You can achieve your target easier;

iii.     You’re playing the number game on another level;

iv.     You don’t care about people because you are in your fat job, earning your fat salary, sitting on your high chair, where you never assume you can come tumbling down one day;

v.     You are oblivious to the true fact that if you extended that reach of support, you would positively participate in your organization’s growth and also the growth of the countries economy and finally, continuously increase your Collections service levels;

vi.     You are oblivious to the fact that when you sow good seed you get good, so when you sow bad seed, guess what?

vii.     Being humane is a sign of growth and maturity which means your progress and success is inevitable. The reverse means you can never achieve your dream.

Creditor employees are unaware that when you are arrogant, abusive, rude, disrespectful and wield your power over a debtor for the sake of desperation for money, then you are building so much resistence that the money you seek, cannot come. That is the law of existence.

My advice is when you opt to rename or reinvent a division called ‘Remedial’ then do your very best to reach out to debtors in the most respectful way, teach them how to fish don’t give them a fish and you will make your own job easier and achieve your goals.

You cannot bring in the new and continue with the old on the back-burner, because it is just not effective in any way at all and as far as I am concerned it is unethical and not in line with policy.

We are all humans on this planet so setting an intention to go ‘remedial’ and show the world you are trying to do good has a pure meaning. So you should learn to walk the talk, doing is always more effective than lip-service.

Inflicting suffering on people is not the way to go, not now and not ever in the future again.

The power of Financial Collections is no longer effective in our evolutionary world today, because the human being engulfed in emotional fear retaliates in adverse ways that does not inspire or support the debtor from taking ownership and responsibility for their debt.

We might say that today debtors want to be treated with ‘kit gloves’ when in reality it is far from the truth, where the latter is that they want to be treated like human beings, not like degenerates, because historically collections has acquired a very bad stigma to it and so debtors react negatively all the time when faced with collection representatives demanding immediate payment, OR………..

Most of everyone of us have made very grave mistakes and bad decisions when it pertains to our finances where debt does not distinguish whom it takes, it simply consumes anyone, at anytime and most of the time the debtor is aware of the upcoming crisis but chooses to ignore the ‘red flags’ until the situation snowballs out of control and then they pretend like they didn’t know it was coming or that it existed.

Debtors facing this crisis always hopes for a miracle without taking action where the key is nothing will move if you don’t choose to move, because in life there are no freebees. Facing a debt-crisis means there is a hard lesson to learn and that lesson does not include transposing your responsibility over to the next person, neither does it include ignoring the situation or pretending that it does not exist. Finally, it does not include ignoring your creditor calls, sms’s or emails as they are all equally and critically important.

It also requires grit to maintain momentum’s that will get you through every single day for as long as you are repaying your debt, where learning to live frugally, sparingly, committed and disciplined are the key factors because without this transformational process you will never learn the lessons meant for you.

Never forget that it is not the creditor’s fault, you created this reality so only you can change it and most importantly a key component of the EFFRS Remedial Coaching and Mentorship is to change your perception, beliefs and habits about money into a new process that will serve you best.

We have learn’t that when you approach a debtor about delinquent payment by demanding, threatening or victimizing them, then you are putting their back up against the wall as much as you the creditor assumes that they don’t deserve any chance, all you need is for them to pay up because that is your goal and your commitment to your employer.

However, this approach is old-fashioned, it is far less effective than Remedial because if I say to a debtor:

1. “If you don’t pay this EMI by x hour, then we will be filing legal action” – If this debtor has 10 other delinquent accounts at 10 other creditors and everyone is demanding the same where they have no money then they will simply throw in the towel, ignore all the future calls because in their mind, they don’t even think about the consequences, simply they don’t care because they feel that nobody cares

VERSUS Remedial…

1. “Do you think that you could possibly try to get the funds to pay at least 1 EMI by today or tomorrow? It would really be appreciated because once you pay this EMI then I can see if I can hold the action due on your account and speak with my manager and maybe we can review a restructure for your outstanding amount” – Now if you read this response and feel inside just how authentic, kind and co-operative the creditor is asking the debtor to make the effort, then trust me that debtor will walk the streets flat to find some money to pay into their account.

As the creditor do you fully understand how negatively a debtor is affected when you blast their head off and demand the outstanding EMI? The 2nd version is more diplomatic method of securing outstanding debtors because you have displayed a unique human touch to the process that cannot be compared to harsh collections techniques and why this is so effective is that the human spirit needs rekindling during these emotional times because debtors are engulfed in fear constantly every day, when they are in this situation.

Therefore as a collection company you cannot transform your image tomorrow morning to remedial because people remember the threats, calls, demands, victimization, negative attitudes and actions and so as EFFRS we have authentically been remedial from inception, so we provide an absolute neutral environment to debtors where they know that once they arrive at our offices, they will not be blasted, embarrassed, humiliated, degraded or simply their human spirit crushed.

This is where EFFRS adds immense invaluable service and support including our debt recovery coaching and mentorship which does not have a time-line as we operate purely on building and fully establishing relationships of trust with our clients.

So by the same token, our creditor clients are afforded the same invaluable service offerings within this scope of work that they expect as we always meet our service deliverables and promises, because we operate with integrity, principle and service excellence.

Creditors should therefore not view EFFRS as a competitor or a company wanting to take their business or their employees jobs, rather, a helping hand that is reaching out to take hands and fully support them to meet their goals and objectives, help them protect their organization’s assets and in turn also help their debtors. So it is a full circle that is being offered by EFFRS and I just wonder why some creditor management have their backs up against the wall.

Perhaps now is the time to review a contract with EFFRS to help creditors recover their debtors and in turn help their organizations to grow, which then fully supports the countries growth as debtors will remain to repay their debt, families will not be split, people will be able to reactivate their lives and start living again in harmony.

Nothing can thrive in adversity or where no harmony, happiness or joy exists so it’s time to smell the coffee!

EFFRS are committed to rendering their Remedial Services and will continue to strive for service improvement as we progress in the forthcoming years.

SME’s  are our core businesses and if facing a dire debt-crisis situation, then they need the attention to save the day and history.

In the initial stage SME’s realized that their market would be facing a problem in the next 1-2months and opted to approach their creditors resulting in mostly being turned away, because at the time they were regular with their repayments, not defaulting. Hence creditors did not view their request as requiring pro-active action, where today we know the outcome of these actions.

One very important key is that creditors, salary individuals or those who do not have to create their monthly income versus SME’s or true Entrepreneurs have the innate ability to forecast their own very near future outcome when it pertains to generating their income and the answer is simple. They do not have the luxury of a monthly salary disbursed to their account, in fact, they stand at the end of a queue after disbursing their staff and other fixed costs that must be paid. Just that requires commitment and tenacity so most of these individuals have substance but that only dissipates when being treated badly.

So when they approach you for a restructure then believe them, take their word for it and do something about it, because we could have prevented the situation that exists today as I view it as self-inflicted, with respect.

Not all business owners are sincere or committed where that is the job of the creditor to ascertain after applying their risk policies and due diligence measures. So this article is not implying that all business owners should have been granted this concession and consideration, however many of them did and they were refused.

As expatriate Entrepreneurs living and operating in any overseas country for a decades or a fair no of years we know that we are in that country for a reason, where the key justification is that “we are better off than in our own countries” for many known reasons. So the question is why would a sincere committed business owner just pack up and leave if they could be afforded an opportunity of a debt-restructure where they can affordably repay their debt and be in peace?

Too little too late is what I see right now as the damage has been done…

Over the past 2months creditors have been scuttling around creating a ‘remedial’ division to finally entertain remedial discussions with SME’s, but we also know that it is way too late to recoup what is left behind. Many have gone but wish to return even after a few months and so my synopsis is very true, i.e. that they should have been afforded the help and full support initially.

Not many people have the ability to project doom and gloom but there are people who know their business, they also know the habits of their clients when they see business slowing down and by the same token, they have sound relationships with suppliers for years, so any negativity that surfaces raises red flags and based on these findings is why they first approached creditors before facing delinquent situations.

Even today, remedial negotiations is still extremely tough with creditors as they tend to ‘throw the book‘ at debtors, beat old stories as to where the money has gone and why they took such credit facilities where this is now irrelevant and obsolete because at the time the market trend was to afford SME’s credit at a high pace, they still demand overdues before restructuring in spite of creditors being the main reason requests decisions are delayed for months.

So the famous last words are ‘the debtor knows they have liabilities with us so even though they requested our consideration for a restructure, they should continue paying their EMI’s!’. Final outcome parallel to the pending request is cheque bounced and legal action filed.

Creditor folks, remember the debtor approached you 3 months prior and it has taken you exactly this time-frame to make a decision, in the interim with the debtor being battered by collections departments and external collections agencies when in the first place 3months ago the debtor informed the creditor of their inability to meet the current payment amount from the following month, with justifiable reasons. So where would the debtor generate the current EMI from if they informed you of their probable situation in the coming months?

Makes sense, correct? The question is who sees is and who has empathy to understand this situation and then who actually makes the time and effort to take action on behalf of the debtor?

I can tell you hardly anyone and the reason is they are in their job, earning their salaries so their comfort zone is not disturbed and rightfully a debtors liability should not affect the conscience of a creditor. However my point has nothing to do with this it pertains to understanding the real reason why the debtor is unable to maintain current EMI’s and needs reduced EMI’s.

It’s a logical conclusion, supposedly very clear to understand but try to communicate and go into dialogue with a creditor about this? The outcome is a zero, at the end of the day, they will do whatever it takes to secure those outstanding current EMI’s and not even apologize, or take the debtors 3month pending request into consideration and I am baffled as to the reasons why.

Sure, the reasons as stated by many creditors could be:

• They made this debt so it is their responsibility to continue their payments until they receive a response on their request. [Sure I get it but what I don’t get is why each month a collection representative will inform a debtor when a new EMI is due: [“Just pay this payment and I will activate the restructure request”] …Until next month, the restructure request is still not finalized and the 2nd collection representative calls with the same promises and that just leaves the debtor in a very hopeless dire situation and frame of mind where emotionally, they feel like they are doomed for disaster and then act accordingly to safeguard themselves.
  

• Creditors are not here to give them restructures after they took the loans and spent the money [True, this is what I am told when approaching creditors for debtor restructure requests]

• We are not a charity they must repay their debt. –[Sure, they know you are not a charity and they are willing to repay their debt at affordable EMI’s and that is all they are asking]

The list goes on and it’s long.

Creditors should also comprehend that when a remedial company approaches them for their debtors support that we are not here to take anyone’s job, in fact we are here to fully support your organization by applying our professional experienced ‘soft skills’ methods.

Together we can make a difference but isolating ourselves as islands who can ‘pull the strings’ as we wish, is totally unacceptable as the world has transformed into something many are oblivious to, where the core today is if you are in a position of strength, then reach out and help to transform lives and you would have done your bit.

In fact it will come around to you in measures unknown to you that could change your life to what you dream of, tomorrow.

Food for thought is that we don’t know where we will be tomorrow, we don’t know that if we walk into our office tomorrow that we will still have a job and what then if we too have huge liabilities? Would we not seek the empathy and support of those in positions of strength to help us?

THINK ABOUT THAT BECAUSE NOTHING THAT WE OWN BELONGS TO US AS IT CAN BE REMOVED TOMORROW WITHOUT OUR PERMISSION, SO LIVE WITH INTEGRITY AND DO YOUR BIT FOR HUMANITY…

It is proven that taking ownership and responsibility in the face of emotional fear, is the only path to successful debt recovery.

Nothing will change if you don’t decide to face those debt fears and learn how to overcome those emotions that has overtaken your life! When you don’t face it, then the situation gets progressively worse until there is no control and by this time, its very hard for anyone to help you.

Ignoring this situation does not make it disappear and most times when we are facing a debt-crisis after sometime we convince ourselves that one day the problems will no longer exist and this is delusional, we know this subconsciously.

1. We are therefore equipped to review your financial exposure and tender our professional advice where this is the 1st step.
2. We will advise you on the action to be taken and brief you on our joint roles and responsibilities to institute this action and remember we both have key roles to play in this process. You are just not afforded the luxury of transposing your entire debt situation to EFFRS with no effort from your end as we mentor you along the way with invaluable lessons.
3. Whether you are a private (retail) client or SME (commercial) we are able to fully assist and support you.
4. Transparency is the key from the client from inception, with no hidden surprises as this often happens and then complicates the process which is already activated. Be clear with no agenda’s because we expect the trust, honesty and sincerity.
5. The confidentiality of your private information is just as key to us as it is to you so we respect your privacy without exception.
6. Once the process is activated you are regularly updated and informed, especially when you need to personally present yourself at your creditors to present and/or sign the relevant documentation required to conclude the new requested process.
7. Your co-operation and commitment is therefore of utmost importance and critical

There is no task too big or small for the EFFRS team so be assured that we do not make exceptions for any client as we follow our internal stringent processes and policies which is aligned to global best practice standards and therefore aligned with most large creditor organizations. Our staff are also subject to a stringent code of conduct which is a credit for all concerned parties.

If you are facing a dire situation and we do appreciate the embarrassment where most debtors do not want to open up and discuss there problems with external parties, be assured we understand this very important point which is why we created a neutral environment for clients like yourself to feel comfortable when discussing these very personal problems and issues.

The fact is regardless of how you feel at some point you must take action or suffer the consequences which can be harsh especially if your debt is very high. We deal with clients with extreme debt and we have many success stories where those individuals are comfortably repaying their debt with no regrets.

We believe in relationships and continuing to maintain them so much of our business initially was based on referrals and it continues to be so until today.

We know that historically the stigma of debt alienates people which is why we are trying to change that perception that debt is a disease and that we must stay away from people who are in debt as they are a problem and create more problems where this is far from the truth most times. Debt does not distinguish, it consumes anyone so it is wrong to discriminate because everyone deserves a second chance in life so we assure you we will do our level best to help you resolve this problem.

It’s tough when you have no support, nobody believes in you or your ability to overcome your debt problems and change your situation but the key point we found is that the very people in positions of strength who are able to support you, never realise that they could find themselves facing the same problem as nobody is immune.

The way forward in this life today is to reach out and try to touch as many lives as possible, because only then do we in turn receive what we asked for…