The Collector is supposed to locate and notify customers of delinquent accounts by mail, telephone or personal visit to solicit payment.

Primary Responsibilities:

• The Collector has several duties one of the main duties is to receive payment and post the amount to the customer’s account.
• The Collector has to prepare written statements to the credit department when the customer fails to respond.
• The Collector initiates repossession proceedings or service disconnection when necessary.
• The Collector keeps records of collections and status of accounts.

The Collector has direct contact with customers and sometimes it can be very unpleasant experience. Since the Collector is the one that has to enforce bill payment or initiate repossession customers can become very irate. This is a situation that needs to be handled with great stability by the Collector. The Collector needs to be able to locate and contact customers often by using computers and other automated systems. The Collector is the one who records information about financial status of customers and status of collection efforts. The Collector needs to confer with customers by telephone or in person to determine reasons for overdue payments and to review the terms of sales, service, or credit contracts.

The Collector needs to be able to advise customers of necessary actions and strategies for debt repayment. The Collector persuades customers to pay amounts due on credit accounts, damage claims, or none payable checks, or to return merchandise hopefully not damaged. The Collector must do some clerical duties such as:

• Sort and file correspondence pertaining to customers that needs to be collected.
• The Collector must answer correspondence and write reports.
• The Collector performs various administrative functions for assigned accounts, such as recording address changes and purging the records of deceased customers.
• The Collector must arrange for debt repayment or establish repayment schedules, based on customers’ financial situations.

The Collector has the power to negotiate credit extensions when necessary. The Collector has to do a lot of leg work at times to find people when they have moved leaving behind no change of address. The Collector often can go to the post office and get the new address that a customer has left for his/her mail forwarding. The Collector might end up checking other places to get this information like the telephone companies, credit bureaus, or by asking the neighbors questions. When the ability to collect from the customer or getting the return of merchandise is impossible then the Collector then must turn the account over to an attorney.

The Collector must drive a vehicle to visit customers, return merchandise to creditors, or deliver bills. The Collector must have a good driving record and no criminal record in order to perform his duties. The Collector must have knowledge of principles and processes for providing customer and personal services. The Collector must be able to help with customer needs making assessments of their financial situation. The Collector has to have knowledge of administrative and clerical procedures and systems such as word processing, managing files and records, stenography and transcription, designing forms along with other office procedures and terminology.

The Collector must have good communication skills with knowledge of English grammar, rules of composition, and proper terminologies to write legal documents. The Collector needs to keep in tune with financial markets, banking and the analysis reporting of financial data. While the Collector does a lot of communication both written and verbal he must also be able to do active listening. The Collector must give full attention to what other people are saying and what they are trying to relay to you. The Collector needs to be able to understand the points that the customer is making, asking appropriate questions at the appropriate times.

Then the Collector needs to be able to convey to the customer effectively making sure that they understand what is required of them in order to get the repayment. That is why it is very important that the Collector is aware of others reactions and understandings so you will know why the customer reacts in the manner that they do. Some customers can become violent and you need to make sure that you do not try to handle these people by yourself instead you should file the proper paper work and have a legal assistant such as a police officer help you serve the proper repossession paper work.