As someone who has made thousands upon thousands of debt collection calls as a credit manager and first party collector and as an agency owner and third party collector, I wanted to share what I know about making these calls so that you can improve on your calls. To take the fear out of it, just remember that making a collection call is like making a customer service call. You are calling about a problem with the account and you just want to resolve it. You will learn what common excuses people give and what you can say to them in order to keep the call moving in the right direction and not going off track. You will learn how to notice a red flag with an account that you are calling and be able to avoid disaster by taking specific steps based on your knowledge of what is happening with that particular account. This book will help anyone who owns a business and needs to call customers that are past due. It will help accounts receivable clerks who make calls to delinquent accounts; it will help credit managers who make collection calls or "your account is on credit hold" calls. This book will also help collectors who work for a third party collection agency. This book is meant to be a guide for bill collectors. I have shared with you actual and specific steps I have taken in my years of doing collection work that have worked well for me. I have found that when making collection calls and dealing with excuses, you must be firm, tread lightly, have compassion and treat the account carefully. Treat the account (not the customer) like a child who needs your guidance and help to get this paid. This has worked very well for me and I have successfully collected more money than other collectors based on following these steps.