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CRITICAL

CONVERSATIONS

It’s time to see some of these critical conversations in action.

Review the 7 Critical Conversations that you will experience with a customer:

Customer Verification and Order Form: You have probably already practiced this in the
Order Form section earlier today. Making sure that you get the BEST information on your order
form, and seting the customer’s renewal payments up according to their pay day, is the first and
most important account management critical conversation you will have.

Fallout Call: This is a call to customers to remind them of their renewal payment due date. We WELCOME & ORIENTATION / TRAINING ROADMAP
only call select customers at select times on their actual due date. This should look and feel like
a sales call, possibly letting the customer know about the current promotions and / or hot deals
in your store.

1-6 Days Past Due: In this conversation, you are looking for a payment commitment, ideally INTRODUCTION TO ACCOUNT MANAGEMENT / CRITICAL CONVERSATIONS
for that same day. You will always want to update the customer’s information before discussing
payment arrangements. Consider the customer’s recent payment history. If there is a pattern of
late payments, you will want to use the four steps to customer interaction (BLAT!) to resolve the
problem and gain the customer’s commitment to pay on time in the future.

Broken Past-Due Commitment: This is a conversation with a past-due account that had
committed to make a payment at a set day / time and failed to keep that commitment. You will
want to be firm but fair when dealing with this type of situation. Your goal is to get the payment
resolved with the customer right then and there, and then gain a commitment for future
on-time renewals.

You’ll learn more about the following call types in Second Gear.

First Payment Default (HS): The term “first payment default” refers to a customer that
misses their first scheduled renewal payment with the store. Most customers enter into a
contract that requires them to make on-time payments for up to, and over, one year to obtain
ownership of their merchandise. It is very important that stores identify customers that miss
their first payment and that only qualified store personnel handle these conversations. The store
and their staff have gone to great lengths up until this point to communicate to the customer
not only when their initial payment is due, but that RAC only accepts on-time payments. The
date and amount of the first payment is agreed upon during the closing of the sale, then
reinforced on the delivery of the merchandise with the Delivery Checklist, and then again with
the Store Manager’s Two-Day Call Back. For now, if you encounter a customer that is a first
payment default, immediately hand them off to the store manager or the assistant manager, but
hang around and observe how they handle the situation. We will also visit this subject and dive
into greater detail once you reach your home store.

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