Trainee Collections Office Manager

**Purpose of the Job**:
As a Trainee Collections Office Manager you will directly supervise and coordinate the activities of staff in order to ensure that customers are located and notified of delinquent accounts by mail, telephone, or personal visit to solicit payment.

**Job Objectives**:
***People Management**
- Supervise the work of employees to ensure adherence to quality standards, deadlines, and proper procedures, correcting errors or problems
- Interpret and communicate work procedures and company policies to staff
- Provide employees with guidance in handling difficult or complex problems or in resolving escalated complaints or disputes
- Monitor work activities, or evaluate performance in accordance with targets set (i.e. monitor the arrears, track staff phone calls)
- Discuss job performance problems with employees to identify causes and issues and to work on resolving problems
- Train and instruct employees in job duties or company policies or arrange for training to be provided
- Recruit, interview and select employees
- **Administrative duties**:

- Reports on the UCS system
- Record information about financial status of customers and status of collection efforts
- Determine/predict future monetary value of the accounts in arrears
- Monitor arrears to ensure reductions
- Implements procedures to control bad debt
- Control cost of collections
- Ensure debts are repaid or repayment schedules are established, based on customers’ financial situations
- Ensure customers are located and notified of delinquent accounts by mail or telephone to solicit payments
- Ensure customers are advised of necessary actions and strategies for debt repayment
- **External relations**:

- Liaise with collection agents and/or attorneys
- Confer with customers by telephone or in person to negotiate the best possible scenario and ensure repayment of accounts
- Persuade customers to pay amounts due on credit accounts, damage claims, or non-payable checks, or to return merchandise.
- 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.

**Qualifications**:

- Matric

**Experience**:

- Managerial experience
- Call centre experience
- HR Principles
- Collections in a Retail environment

**Knowledge and Skills**:

- **Critical skills**:

- Writing - communicating effectively in writing as appropriate for the needs of the audience
- Active listening - giving full attention to what other people are saying, taking time to understand the points being made, asking questions as appropriate, and not interrupting at inappropriate times
- Reading comprehension - understanding written sentences and paragraphs in work related documents
- Speaking - talking to others to convey information effectively
- Coordination - adjusting actions in relation to others’ action
- Critical thinking - using logic and reasoning to identify the strengths and weaknesses of alternative solutions, conclusions or approaches to problems
- Judgement and Decision Making - considering the relative costs and benefits of potential actions to choose the most appropriate on
- Social perceptiveness - being aware of others’ reactions and understanding why they react the way they do
- Negotiation
- bringing others together and trying to reconcile differences
- **Knowledge**:

- Customer and Personal Service — Knowledge of principles and processes for providing customer and personal services. This includes customer needs assessment, meeting quality standards for services, and evaluation of customer satisfaction
- Clerical — Knowledge of administrative and clerical procedures and systems, and other office procedures and terminology
- English Language — Knowledge of the structure and content of the English language including the meaning and spelling of words, rules of composition, and grammar
- Computer and Electronics - knowledge of general office equipment (fax machines, copiers, phone systems and computers)
- Law and Government - Knowledge of the National Credit Act and all laws, legal codes, court procedures, government regulation, etc.
- **Abilities**:

- Oral Comprehension - The ability to listen to and understand information and ideas presented through spoken words and sentences
- Oral Expression - The ability to communicate information and ideas in speaking so others will understand
- Written Comprehension - The ability to read and understand information and ideas presented in writing
- Written Expression - The ability to communicate information and ideas in writing so others will understand
- Speech Clarity - The ability to speak clearly so others can understand you
- Speech Recognition - The ability to identify and understand the speech of another person
- Information Ordering - The ability to arrange things or actions in a certain order or pattern according to a specific rule or set of rules
- Problem Sensitivity - The ability to tell when something