Chasing unpaid debt can be a huge drain on your time and resources. It’s important to be methodical, determined and to avoid some common and obvious pitfalls:

• Not Having a Strong Relationship With Your Customer

It’s important to have an understanding of your customer. It pays to have strong relationships and good channels of communication. This way it’s much easier to chase overdue invoices and payments. Whether you’re a debt collection agency pursuing debt recovery, or a small business owner, you have to maintain strong customer ties. So avoid aggressive correspondence, or you run the risk of offending important clients.

• You Don’t Agree Terms Upfront

In order to effectively manage your cashflow it’s imperative that you agree invoice payment terms in advance. If you don’t agree a payment timescale you’re not prepared, and you’re unable to pre-empt cash flow fluctuations, which could have hugely negative impact. 

• You Don’t Invoice Correctly and Promptly 

Good organization is the key to any successful enterprise. The faster that you can generate an invoice, and send it to the customer after a product or service is delivered, the sooner you will receive your payment. The invoices should be clear and precise, and without errors.

• You Don’t Use Debt Collection Software 

When you’re chasing outstanding debt, you must respond swiftly and efficiently.  But small business and debt collection agencies often find that their time is spent on unproductive, labour-intensive administrative tasks. With cloud-based debt collection software, this ‘wasted time’ can be significantly reduced.  The automation of customer reminders, and the provision of two 2 way SMS, Live Chat, and VOIP integration, will save you a fortune when it comes to chasing late payments.

REQUEST A DEMO and see how LATERAL’S robust and powerful debt collection software can save you money today.