I have always loved the song, My Way, when it’s sung by Frank Sinatra. That one line, “Regrets…. I’ve had a few….” truly resonates with me.
On that musical note, several years ago I attended a wonderful workshop with credit and collection professionals titled, “Credit regrets… I’ve had a few.” There were about twenty credit professionals in the workshop, and we went around the table sharing one or two of the credit and collection mistakes that we really regretted during the past year. Here are a few that I remember for your consideration.
- Did not get a signature on the personal guarantee section of the credit application.
- Overlooked the purchasing amounts of one particular customer until it was too late.
- Gave in too easily on issuing credits when the customer did not have a legitimate complaint against the products.
- Did not embrace technology like I should have and continued doing mundane things manually.
- Angered sales by not letting them know about certain credit holds.
- Spoke impolitely to customers who wanted to seriously resolve their past due account.
- Did not properly train staff who were left confused and unsure of what to do in their job.
- Did not follow the credit policy and instead shot from the hip on some credit decisions that went bad.
- Did not listen to the other side and when I did, I only pretended to be open minded.
- Rambled on in meetings leaving everyone with a weird impression of me.
Whatever our past mistakes and regrets, the reality is that we can’t go back and fix them. The only thing we can do is to learn from them and try not to make them again.
Wishing you a very happy, healthy, and “regret-free” New Year!
Nancy Seiverd, President, CMI Credit Mediators, Inc. (nseiverd@cmiweb.com)
