A Few (Very Important!) Things That Aren't Said...

It's been an interesting couple of days one way or another. Eurostar didn't come to a halt in the tunnel last Thursday - for which I shall be forever grateful! - and people have written and said things that have given me more and more to think about.

I've written a lot over the past six months about professional collection software. It's wonderful. I'm perpetually astonished by how much information can be made so readily available so easily -and I would never want to return to 'the old days' when it was so much more difficult to get information of any kind. But reading posts from newcomers to this trade I do wonder whether collection has become so automated a function that they are failing to learn - or develop - something vital.

A couple of days ago I was talking about developing empathy with debtors - which is certainly vital! - and I quoted something that Charlie Becker of Sales Beach Associates had written on LinkedIn. Today I had the time to look again at what Charlie had written, and I came across the phrase 'Sometimes it's better to listen and hear everything and even a few things that aren't said'.

Like me - and I think like anyone else that has been in this business for a long time before professional software became the norm - Charlie Becker has not only learned to listen and communicate well with debtors, he has learned to use his intuition; to 'listen' to the 'few things that aren't said'.

It will be a great pity if, by coming to rely on computerised collection systems, people fail to learn - or develop the ability - to do that.

Computers are wonderful. Computerised collection systems are wonderful. But - for the moment - only the computer in your own head can learn to hear and evaluate the 'few things that aren't said'.

You can find Charlie Becker - and me - on LinkedIn . In the meantime you might want to take some time to get to grips with your personal programming...