Creating Customer Loyalty to Improve the Bottom Line

Not so long ago a company I was working with decided to outsource their debt collections department and in doing so made sure that many of the debt collectors moved into other positions within the company. After a time this company decided to bring back the debt collection department but wanted to take a new approach. Instead of 'debt collections' the new department was called 'Debt Assistance.' The company went out of its way to train the Debt Assistance employees on effective ways of working with people in debt to their company. They taught them how to work with and listen to people in debt and gave these employees greater freedom in resolving debt issues with their clients. There were several cases wherein some of the client's debt was forgiven if they could make regular but smaller payments for a period of time, and in a few rare cases excused completely. The Debt Assistance department made people feel like they were their advocate, they listened to people's stories and worked hard to come up with practical solutions for resolving their customer's debt.

An important role that the Debt Assistance managers played in this new approach was to interview the front line managers on an ongoing basis. The managers would pull the employees into their office and ask how things were going, they would listen to the hard stories that clients were sharing with their front line and then discuss and take the time to ask how they felt about these particular stories. This was an important opportunity for 2 reasons. One, it gave them time to bounce practical ideas off each other and, two, it was a healthy outlet for the employees; a chance for them to voice the hard things they were hearing everyday.

The outcome of this new approach? Many customers who had previously been paying nothing every month started to make small payments, Debt Assistance gained a reputation through word of mouth and before long the department was collecting a full 50% more each month than they had previously. This company took a true abundance approach. They believed that through trying to improve people's lives the bottom line would follow and indeed, with the combination of its strong new customer loyalty and job satisfaction and retention within the company, the bottom line followed!