CCR2 International Collections Keeping in touch, saving face


As native English speakers, it is essential to understand that, when trading overseas, people may have different cultural and linguistic conventions


Christina Massaad Managing director, Cedar Rose International Services Christina.Massaad @cedar-rose.com


Whichever countries you trade with, it is likely that you will liaise with people of many different nationalities. Whilst we sometimes tiptoe around the issue, it is definitely true that strong cultural practices do exist in business as much as in day-to-day life. So, when we are trading internationally, it


helps to have an understanding of practices in our own culture which might be frowned upon by others, and to have knowledge of the expectations for those in other countries, with whom we want to forge good and strong relationships. After all, I am sure we will all agree; the first step to getting paid on time is to build a rapport with your client based on mutual respect and camaraderie. We received an e-mail recently, from a


potential client in Turkey, to our sales department, asking us what was ‘the novelty’ in our credit reports. The sales person came to me confused, so I looked up ‘novelty’ online: ‘the quality of being new, original, or unusual’ and they obviously meant this rather than ‘an object intended to be amusing as a result of its unusual design’, which was our first, rather puzzling, interpretation. It is a good rule of thumb, when any


e-mail comes to you, to read it with an open mind and try to understand what the person may have meant, if their e-mail seems confusing or even offensive. Remember that English may not be their first language. It is quite easy for first-language-English


speakers to make mistakes too. Imagine you have been chasing payment


and sympathetically responded to a Russian, Chinese, or Arabic speaking person, for example: “It is a shame that you could not pay on the date you had promised to, but I do understand your situation.” They may well look up the first two definitions of the word ‘shame’ in their


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dictionary and be offended: ‘a painful feeling of humiliation or distress caused by the consciousness of wrong or foolish behaviour’ or ‘a loss of respect or esteem; dishonour’. Of course, that was not what you meant at all. So be careful which words you choose.


Showing respect No-one in business likes to be chased for payment, but, for some cultures, it can be more difficult than others because of strong values linked to honour and ‘keeping face’. This is particularly relevant to Asian and Arabic cultures. My advice is to be much more polite than you think is strictly


necessary. If pursuing payment by e-mail, always use titles – Mr, Mrs, and so on – even if you are on first-name terms, as a mark of respect. And if you are not sure which way round the name should be, use both names – although a quick Google search will usually help you to clarify. A polite telephone call is likely to be far


more effective than an e-mail, even just to advise that you think they may not have received your company’s invoices and you wanted to check to be sure. Once your contact confirms receipt, ask


When any e-mail comes to you, read it with an open mind and try to understand what the person may have meant, if their e-mail seems confusing or even offensive. Remember that English may not be their first language


for a payment date. Then follow up with an e-mail to thank them for agreeing to pay on that day, and again when payment comes in – or call them the next day if it does not. In cultures which are built on trust and


reputation, it is unlikely that once they have committed to the date, they will ‘lose face’ by letting you down. Of course, no method will ever be 100%


guaranteed and no two people are the same, whatever country or culture they are from. But one thing remains true: the key to any collections or credit policy is to maintain good relationships with your customers, and the more you know about them, the easier that will be. CCR2


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