Expert: Michelle Dunn - 7/18/2009

Question
Hi

I'm a collector for my countries tax department (... I hear some boos coming! lol).  I've been a collector for about 8 months now so I'm still fairly new to the profession.  The main problem I have is 'establishing the cause' – differentiating the can't payers from the won't payers.  Obviously this stage is critical as it determines which route I take for the rest of the call.  The problem I have is that our government have widely publicized the ability to spread tax payments in installments if one can't pay their tax bill to help with the recession.  They have setup a dedicated line for that, the Business Payment Support Service line.  Being a collector, I work on the Debt Management Telephone Centre (we are like an in house collection department, we deal with cases prior to referring them to the Local Recovery Offices for further action).  Being a debt collection call centre our objective is to obtain payment in full, or as close to that ideal as possible.  The last thing we would ever consider is spreading the payment in installments!  To make matters worse, when taxpayers call the contact centres or tax offices, they refer to us as the 'Time To Pay Helpline', which is totally false – were are debt management!  Now I'm all for helping people who are in genuine difficulty, but the problem arises when we get people calling up asking to spread their payments over 6 to 12 months, or more.  When I push to get payment in full or payment in full in 28 days, they always say they can't do it and that they can only pay over 6-12 months etc. In my coaching it has been noticed I need to work more on questioning the taxpayers, and also asking more open ended questions about other ways of raising funds, something which I have been focusing on in the last few weeks.  This has helped in a few cases, but still the majority of cases even asking open ended questions often gets quick answers like “nothing in savings, up to limit on overdraft, no credit cards, no family or friends to borrow from, etc”.  I know we are in a recession, but surely everyone who calls our number can't have no other ways of raising funds – how are they living?  In our training it said the majority of people make out they can't pay but most actually can, or can pay a lot more than what they actually claim they can. It seems to me they are aware of our fallback position so are just telling me what I (dont!) want to hear to setup an installment arrangement with them.
So my question is, what is the best way of differentiating between the genuine can't payers and the won't payers who are just taking advantage?  

Thanks in advanced!

Richard

Answer
Richard,
The best way of differentiating between the "can't" pay and the "won't" pay debtors is to ask specific questions that will answer that question for you.  For example, Ask how they are paying their bills now, are they getting unemployment if they don't have a job? Are they looking for a job? Maybe they just started a new job, ask when they get paid, weekly, monthly etc.  You have to dig and ask the questions that will tell you if they are a serious debtor or just trying to get out of paying.  Check out my 3rd edition of Starting a collection agency, there are examples and scripts in there that you can use.
Good Luck!!