What is your role at CRM and what are your main responsibilities?
I’m part of the Collections team at CRM. My main responsibilities are to effectively manage an ever-changing, fluid portfolio of cases and tasks, primarily maximising cash collection in as time-efficient a manner as possible, and providing excellence to our clients. That’s months spent hammering phones, emailing, and negotiating at all levels within all organisations.
On a daily basis, I’m learning and listening, information gathering, and thinking outside the rectangle (not the box!). From a basic spreadsheet sales ledger with the sketchiest of details and information, to a well-rounded sales ledger or one-off verification cases that can parachute into your day at any minute. Priorities can change, and that’s what I enjoy, the variation. It pays dividends to be versatile in my role.
What does a typical workday look like for you?
If it’s the first few days of a fresh case, then I’m busy agreeing on strategies, mailing correspondence, hitting the phones, emailing paperwork, and chasing up records from clients.
Can you tell us about your previous experience leading up to becoming Receivables Executive?
I’ve worked mainly in credit control and sales for the last 23 plus years, in the areas of software, property management, and manufacturing. I’ve previously managed a credit control department and was part of a tender bid lead team for a software company, completing tender bids for NHS contracts for various software systems.
I then had to take a career break for four years to become my Autistic son’s full-time carer and flag bearer/chief shouty voice, focusing my skills on fighting Councils and Local Education Authorities – and winning.
After the battles were won, and when I was able to return to work, it took me nearly a year to get a temp job due to my years outside the arena of work. I worked for a few years for a couple of big corporations, then Cerberus found me in May 2019 and I became part of the CRM family.
What do you bring to the CRM team?
I think I’m a very effective communicator and that’s a major strength in what we do on a day-to-day basis. My sense of humour – though others may disagree on that one. It’s important and I love the energy in our office. We work hard, and I love being part of an environment where banter still exists.
I genuinely feel like part of a family. I think someone once said, “You don’t find Cerberus, Cerberus finds you” – said in a non-threatening tone!
How is CRM different to other workplaces?
Honestly, from day one it felt like I fitted in, completely. There’s such a variation in the work we do, and I’ve never experienced that in another company. I love and respect my colleagues and have learned more from them than probably anywhere else.
What does a typical weekend look like for you?
I write, produce and record electronic music and also have a fortnightly internet radio show that I DJ on. I’ve had decks since I was 17 and have a large 12” vinyl collection from the late 70s to today. I enjoy crate digging in what record shops we have still with us, hunting out those nuggets of black wax. I still play the occasional booking, although vinyl only. I also spend a lot of time writing and producing music, and remixing. One of my latest tunes was exclusively debuted at The Blue Dot Festival at Jodrell Bank in July by a headline DJ, and I’m presently on the cusp of signing my first deal with a record label too.
I’m trying to get back into seeing live music again too and have a few bands and an 80s festival booked in for this summer so far. I recently saw Tears For Fears which was amazing. I’m also an avid reader of autobiographies and biographies of bands and artists.
Before you go, do you have any words of wisdom you’d like to share
‘To know what you know, and to know what you don’t know, is the characteristic of one who truly knows’ – Confucius.