It's the phone with it's incessant ringing again. Unknown is showing on the caller id. It's that bill collector again! That's me. My name is Barbara and I am one of the most hated people on the planet. I call you at 8 am on a Sunday morning, I call you at work just as your boss catches you taking that extra 15 minute break, and yes, I am the one that calls you about your parents bill the week they died.
That company I work for is not small, but it not national either. Nope…. No names, sorry.
The first thing I see when I enter the building is a police officer sitting behind the front des. He will look at me expectantly for my picture key card, which I will show him just before I scan it across the top of a turnstile. After all that mess I have to scan it again to open the door that will let me into the heart of the building. Next is the time clock. This particular time clock requires you to first enter your employee code then if you do that correctly it scans your fingerprint to make sure you are who you say you are. Security is a pretty tight thing here and it has to be since we tend to make a lot of people extremely angry.
Then it's off to my desk. Of course I have a computer and a phone. There is also a little black box connected to the phone the let me plug in my headset and work calls hands free. My system literally takes 5 minutes just to turn on. After that I begin bring up my tools.
Now while all of the collectors are doing this, the bosses huddle up and decide what we are going to do for the day. They go over the previous days numbers and decided a game plan for the day. Once they finish their little pep talk it's time for ours. Our leader comes over and has us group up. Then they start talking about numbers. They talk about enthusias. They preach “money today” and “volume equals dollars”. They demand eye contact. Break eye contact and you are surely suspended for a few days…. Vacation!!!!
Once they're done spewing their rah rah credo and politely, enthusiastically telling you get me money no matter what, we have the count down. Now this is a truly special moment. A group of twenty to thirty adults dressed in professional attire throwing their hands in and yelling 1 - 2 - 3 - MONEY TODAY at the top of their lungs. God forbid if you don't do this, then they think you can't do your job, and what do you know another 2-day suspension.
We all go to our desks at this point and get logged into the dialer. Dialer? What's that? Well that is the computer that makes all the outbound calls to your work, your home, even you relatives depending on how they set it up. Before 5pm we run mostly place of employment jobs or p-o-e jobs as they are called in this business.
A lot of you must really think that we get out a bunch of files from a filing cabinet somewhere and call the customers. Accounts are pulled by what number you want to call, how past due they are, and usually highest balance to lowest. They are pulled from a records database and we have no control of the calls that are made.
Once you get logged in the calls start coming. You get a flash of a name and then start talking while you try to get the record pulled up in another application. It's really great when that screen flashes and you get nothing on the screen but someone on the line. You're lost unless you can get it unstuck.
Then it's show time. My favorite is the pick up and hang-ups. Makes the call quick and simple. Then you have the ever-present receptionist. They tend to get a little nasty, but who can blame them? We call them 3 to 5 times a day. Then there is HR, human resources. Did you know it is illegal to release employment verification information over the phone? Sometimes we get lucky and get a last date of employment.
Some give us home numbers and cell phone numbers. That's gold in my business.
Lets talk about answering machines. Seventy to eighty percent of my day is spent leaving messages. It goes a little something like this:
“Hi, my name is Barbara with … This message is for … I'm calling in regards to an urgent business matter. I need you to return my call before 9:00 pm at…”
