Collecting Thoughts is C&R Software’s new podcast, presenting conversations with industry experts and insiders throughout the finance, software, and collections industries.
This week, our host, Christina, spoke with Lisa Tanner, the Director of Global Credit Collections at Nidec Motor Corporation. Lisa shared some insights on her experience working in the collections industry, how the culture within the industry has shifted, and how she’s overcome career challenges.
Guest Profile
Name: Lisa Tanner
Profession: Director of Global Credit Collections, Nidec Motor Corporation
Coming from a background in business finance, Lisa has been with Nidec for over six years, where she’s lent her extensive experience in credit and collections to manage negotiating, asset management, and dealing with sensitive situations.
Before her work at Nidec, she spent a decade and a half with the Coleman Company as their Manager of Credit and Collections. In other words, she’s no spring chicken in the collections industry!
Find Lisa on LinkedIn
Episode’s Key Points
From Sales to Collections: an unplanned career path
We began our discussion by asking Lisa how she got to where she is today. Having started in sales, she later transitioned into different roles before finding collections was the perfect fit.
For anyone familiar with the collections industry, it’s a refrain you may have heard before: I didn’t plan on becoming a collections manager. Like many before her (and since), Lisa didn’t plan on ending up in collections, either.
Using her ability to facilitate strong relationships, she ensured smooth operations between sales teams and accounts receivable—a synergy crucial to running a successful business.
“I don’t think anybody grows up planning to become a credit manager…. [At the time] there were not enough people in accounts receivable positions with sales background and knowledge of the pain points for the sales side of the organization.
And so, I’ve been able to facilitate strong relationships with sales teams and credit. Working together is always a winning combination. It’s just been a really great career.”
Adapting to changes within the industry
When asked about the most significant changes in the collections industry, Lisa highlighted the growing challenge of hiring and the digital transformation of accounts receivable.
As she explained, hiring people to work in collections is becoming a significant challenge. The workload remains the same regardless of the size of the workforce tasked with completing it, so nimble companies are leveraging technology to reduce the workload for employees, freeing them to deliver the human touch.
“You have to have that human element. What many of the organizations have successfully been able to successfully do is bridge the gap [between automation and humans] so that the workload of individuals is automated and managed through digital formats so that collectors and those in receivable space have time for one-on-one conversations with the customers.”
Overcoming pandemic challenges
As for challenges faced by the industry recently, Lisa described how the Covid-19 pandemic affected relationships between companies and their clients. For instance, since many workers had shifted to remote work (or changed workplaces entirely), contacting anyone in accounts receivable took much work.
Pandemic-caused communication issues have resulted in a deterioration of relationships, Lisa said. The key for companies is finding ways to repair and rebuild these relationships.
“The importance of building and rebuilding those relationships post-Covid has become critical. So what do you offer to the customer in streamlining the process, making it as simple as possible, and providing that human contact when there is a problem?
Tools such as customer-facing portals have become ever more critical. Customers want on-demand service, so being able to provide a customer-facing portal where they can log in, they can download copies of their invoices, all of that kind of support post covid has become even more important in a customer-centric environment.”
Learn more about Lisa
To discover more topics on finance, software, and the collections industry topics from insiders and experts like Lisa, visit the C&R Software blog.
Stay tuned for future episodes of Collecting Thoughts, where host Christina dives deep into more interviews with leaders from across the debt recovery and software world.
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