Morning everyone, I want to talk today about the importance of following a process when chasing customers for payment. Yesterday, we were referred a debt to collect for $2100. The client was a traffic manager and they were engaged by a road building company to provide traffic control. The invoice was due on the 11th June 2016 and I counted literally 12 emails from the client to customer requesting payment, each with a new deadline. In the second email legal action was mentioned if payment wasn’t made in 7 days, this passed so another email gave them another 7 days or it would go to a debt collector. This passed, and another email gave them 48 hours to pay, this passed and another email gave them a further 7 days to pay. The final email offered them a payment arrangement. When I spoke with the debtor yesterday I asked them why didn’t they pay after all these requests and his response was “I knew he wasn’t serious as he kept just giving me chance after chance after chance”. Guys when your customer thinks like this, I am sorry, but you ain’t getting paid! It is absolutely vital that you stick to a process otherwise you undermine your business, your reputation and any chance you have of getting your money. You might think that giving a customer heaps of chances to pay is the right thing to do, but it is not- it is simply counter-productive. If you give them a deadline, stick to it. Threaten legal action in 7 days? Day 8 you need to take legal action. If you are unsure you really want to do that, then it is vital not to threaten it. Deadlines are great, and I encourage everyone to use them, but just make sure the consequences of missing them are either very vague or really something you are going to follow through on. Cheers!
Deadlines- how to use them to get paid