Dear Crabby,
I am the general manager of a mid-size collection agency that has been in business for several decades. Our agency is well known in the industry, and we have about 40 collection professionals who handle claims both domestically and internationally.
One of the challenges we have faced over the past several years involves negative online reviews left by some of the debtors we have contacted. Many of these reviews portray our collectors as being “unprofessional” in their collection approach. From our perspective, however, some of these reviews reflect the frustration and hostility debtors may feel about finding themselves in a collection situation. In other words, a negative review may sometimes say more about the debtor’s frustration with the collection process than about the professionalism or quality of the agency itself.
I would greatly appreciate your advice on how to navigate and counter negative online reviews, particularly when they seem very one-sided and do not tell the whole story.
Signed: Polite but Assertive
Dear Polite but Assertive,
Ah yes, online reviews are like a modern-day suggestion box, except that the suggestion box is now sitting in the middle of the town square with a megaphone attached to it.
Collection agencies face a particular challenge when it comes to online reviews. Your satisfied clients are very pleased when you recover their money, but the debtors on the other hand usually have a very different perspective. After all, very few people finish a conversation with a collector who has just asked them to pay a seriously past-due account and think, “What a wonderful experience! I should go online and give that collector five stars!”
That doesn’t mean you should dismiss negative reviews. Quite the opposite. Every legitimate complaint deserves to be taken seriously. Before assuming that a debtor is simply angry about being contacted, find out what actually happened. Review the account notes and correspondence, speak with the collector involved, and, when appropriate, contact the debtor privately to better understand the complaint. You may occasionally discover that the debtor has a valid point. If a mistake was made, acknowledge it and correct it. If the collector acted appropriately, you’ll at least have the facts before deciding how to respond.
Here are several steps I would suggest:
- Investigate before responding. Verify the debtor’s allegations against your collection notes, correspondence, recordings where legally available, and the collector’s recollection of the conversation. Never respond simply out of frustration or assume that the complaint is unfounded.
- Reach out privately when appropriate. A calm conversation with the debtor may clear up a misunderstanding. If the complaint is based on inaccurate information and the issue is resolved, the debtor may even voluntarily revise or remove the review.
- Respond publicly, but professionally. You don’t necessarily want to leave a damaging review unanswered. Provide the agency’s perspective without arguing with the reviewer or disclosing confidential information about the account. Something as simple as, “We take concerns regarding the professionalism of our staff very seriously and have reviewed this matter internally. We would welcome the opportunity to discuss your concerns with you directly,” can say quite a lot.
- Ask satisfied clients to share their experiences. Your longtime clients probably have an entirely different story to tell about your agency. Consider inviting clients who genuinely know your work to share their honest experiences. There should be no pressure or incentive. Rather, just an opportunity for satisfied clients to make their voices heard.
- Look for patterns. One angry review may simply be one angry debtor. Ten reviews complaining about the same behavior deserve closer examination. Negative reviews can sometimes provide valuable information about training, communication style, or procedures that may need attention.
- Don’t get into an online argument. Even when a review is unfair, inaccurate, or downright infuriating, resist the temptation to fight back. Remember that your response isn’t really being written for the unhappy debtor. It is being read by every prospective client, business partner, and other person who looks up your agency afterward.
Most importantly, don’t make your goal the elimination of every negative review. For a collection agency, that probably isn’t realistic. Instead, concentrate on making sure that anyone researching your company sees a balanced picture: an agency that takes complaints seriously, investigates them fairly, responds professionally, and has plenty of satisfied clients willing to speak about the quality of its work.
You cannot control every review someone writes about you. You can control how professionally you conduct your collection efforts, how thoughtfully you respond when someone complains, and whether the voices of your satisfied clients are being heard as well.
Crabby
Dear Crabby is a credit, collection, and human resources advice column by Nancy Seiverd, President, CMI Credit Mediators Inc. Your thoughts and comments (nseiverd@cmiweb.com) are most welcome!
All Rights Reserved
