Michael Lebovic, Paralegal and President of Canadian Corporate Legal Services quoted in the Financial Post, Part One
From Collecting from deadbeats is never easy, Drew Hasselback, Financial Post · Jan. 24, 2011 | Last Updated: Jan. 25, 2011 10:09 AM ET
Set deadlines
Too often, clients in arrears will promise to pay, but won’t set a date by which that payment should arrive. You have to have a drop-dead date, Mr. Lebovic says. This is something that can be spelled out in the follow up letters you write that lock down the details of your conversations.
Be polite
It sounds trite, especially since you might be pretty frustrated with some of these people after a while.
“It doesn’t mean that I’m a cream puff, but I believe in treating debtors like they’re human beings, and speaking to them like they’re human beings,” Mr. Lebovic says. “No debtor today, I think, is going to be moved to pay a bill because somebody on the other end of the line yells at him.”
Also, if the matter is destined for small claims court, you don’t want to be cast as a bully. Whether you behaved civilly and reasonably can affect the way a small claims court judge views your case.
http://www.nationalpost.com/todays-paper/Collecting+from+deadbeats+never+easy/4154110/story.html
