You may be right. Nothing will work in all cases—and nothingwill work with all people. If you are satisfied with the results youare now getting， why change？ If you are not satisfied， why notexperiment？
At any rate， I think you will enjoy reading this true story toldby James L. Thomas， a former student of mine：
Six customers of a certain automobile company refused to paytheir bills for servicing. None of the customers protested the entirebill， but each claimed that some one charge was wrong. In eachcase， the customer had signed for the work done， so the companyknew it was right—and said so. That was the first mistake.
Here are the steps the men in the credit department took tocollect these overdue bills. Do you suppose they succeeded？
1. They called on each customer and told him bluntly that theyhad come to collect a bill that was long past due.
2. They made it very plain that the company was absolutelyand unconditionally right； therefore he， the customer， wasabsolutely and unconditionally wrong.
3. They intimated that they， the company， knew more aboutautomobiles than he could ever hope to know. So what was theargument about？
4. Result： They argued.
Did any of these methods reconcile the customer and settlethe account？ You can answer that one yourself. At this stage ofaffairs， the credit manager was about to open fire with a battery oflegal talent， when fortunately the matter came to the attention ofthe general manager. The manager investigated these defaultingclients and discovered that they all had the reputation of payingtheir bills promptly， Something was wrong here—something wasdrastically wrong about the method of collection. So he called inJames L. Thomas and told him to collect these “uncollectible”
accounts. Here， in his words， are the steps Mr. Thomas took：
1. My visit to each customer was likewise to collect a bill longpast due—a bill that we knew was absolutely right. But I didn’tsay a word about that. I explained I had called to find out what itwas the company had done， or failed to do.
2. I made it clear that， until I had heard the customer’s story，I had no opinion to offer. I told him the company made no claimsto being infallible.
3. I told him I was interested only in his car， and that he knewmore about his car than anyone else in the world； that he was theauthority on the subject.
4. I let him talk， and I listened to him with all the interest andsympathy that he wanted—and had expected.
5. Finally， when the customer was in a reasonable mood， I putthe whole thing up to his sense of fair play.
I appealed to the nobler motives. “First，” I said， “I wantyou to know I also feel this matter has been badly mishandled.
You’ve been inconvenienced and annoyed and irritated by oneof our representatives. That should never have happened. I’msorry and， as a representative of the company， I apologize. As Isat here and listened to your side of the story， I could not help being impressed by your fairness and patience. And now， becauseyou are fair—minded and patient， I am going to ask you to dosomething for me. It’s something that you can do better thananyone else， something you know more about than anyone else.
Here is your bill； I know it is safe for me to ask you to adjust it，just as you would do if you were the president of my company. Iam going to leave it all up to you. Whatever you say goes.”
Did he adjust the bill？ He certainly did， and got quite a kickout of it， The bills ranged from？ 150 to？ 400—but did thecustomer give himself the best of it？ Yes， one of them did！ Oneof them refused to pay a penny of the disputed charge； but theother five all gave the company the best of it！ And here’s thecream of the whole thing： we delivered new cars to all six of thesecustomers within the next two years！
“Experience has taught me，” says Mr. Thomas， “that when noinformation can be secured about the customer， the only soundbasis on which to proceed is to assume that he or she is sincere，honest， truthful and willing and anxious to pay the charges， onceconvinced they are correct. To put it differently and perhapsmare clearly， people are honest and want to discharge theirobligations. The exceptions to that rule are comparatively few，and I am convinced that the individuals who are inclined to chiselwill in most cases react favorably if you make them feel that youconsider them honest， upright and fair.”
