The return on respect is extremely profitable.
So I am doing it. I am starting this thing called a blog. I have written many things. I sit and write or I sit and I type. Then I delete. Everything always goes unpublished. I find myself in this situation time and time again. I analyze anything and everything. I am always thinking business. I have from a very young age.
When most kids were playing barbies, house, work or school, I wasn’t playing. At the young age of 11 I was working every afternoon for my father’s company. He didn’t request this, I insisted. My father owned his own HVAC company for almost 40 years. He was a well respected man, definition of integrity. There is not a single person in all surrounding counties that will tell you any different. I knew when I grew up I wanted to be just like him.
I am a “daddy’s girl” in every meaning. I wanted to make him proud everyday. I wanted straight A’s, so that I could hear his praise. I wanted to help him work, so that I could show him I was a hard worker.
My self-assigned job responsibilities included calling on his clients and asking them how they were doing, making them smile and providing customer service. I would call and ask them if they needed a service-run, if everything was running smoothly with their unit, if there was anything we could do to provide better service for them and I would always thank them for their business. Little did I know, I was paving myself a successful road for my future.
Fast forward a couple of years, my daily calls morphed into attempts to collect outstanding monies owed. Everyone respected me. I feel this was because my father delivered respect in his reputable work AND because I was respectful in my calls to collect. I maintained the friendliness and care in my call. I never failed to ask them how they were doing prior to talking business.
Calling someone to remind them of their debt (when I can assure you, the majority have not forgotten about) and asking them how they intend to pay, is not something many people are comfortable with. I have never feared it. I have always viewed these calls as an opportunity to maintain a relationship and hard earned rapport with our customers. Listening to their financial burdens, projecting empathy, understanding their situation and repeating it back to them. Showing them “I CARE”. This is how I maintained my father’s A/R. This is how I grew my career. This is where I am today.
Seek first to understand, then to be understood. – Steven Covey
