Is It Time To Bring In the Experts?

This is a question we get asked a lot, so here is a quick guide to circumstances that might indicate that a chat with an accredited debt recovery agency might be good business sense.

1) You are a small business that doesn’t have a dedicated resource to chase overdue invoices
Small businesses can often struggle to find the resource needed to chase overdue invoices, without having a detrimental effect on the rest of the ledger: Working on the adage of 80% of your time being taken up by 20% of your customers, you can see how this could be hugely detrimental to a business’ output. Couple this with the challenge that the person often chasing the outstanding account is not equipped with the skills needed to bring about a positive resolution – it can be very time consuming with minimal results. The right debt collection agency will have the expertise, tools and insight to not only recover outstanding debt but advise on internal processes to bring about improved late payment behaviour.

2) The debt has been outstanding for a significant amount of time
The older a debt, the harder it is to recover, so if payment isn’t forthcoming following polite reminders, it’s time to bring in the experts. All reputable commercial debt recovery firms will have CAI accredited teams who can apply their industry knowledge to recover the debt – sooner, rather than later. 

3) Your defaulter can’t be contacted
It can be very frustrating and time consuming when you are chasing dead ends. A debt collection agency will have resources to trace your customer – getting a validated address before the recovery process begins - saving you time. Controlaccount Plc has an internal trace department – working globally – to get a confirmed contact address and phone number before the process of recovery begins.

4) Reaching stalemate?
An invoice dispute is, unfortunately, fairly commonplace and very time consuming with no promise of payment at the end. If you are finding yourself going round in circles, speak to a debt collection agency. They will be able to mediate with the customer on your behalf, reviewing terms and conditions (and moving forward, making suggestions to improve t&cs to future proof you), putting together a solid payment plan if necessary and getting conversations moving again.

5) The customer is a valued customer
It’s not unusual that when payment is outstanding, relationships between you and your customer can become strained and frustrations between both parties are hard to avoid. Here at Controlaccount, we believe that most defaulters are not ‘debtors’ – we all lead busy lives and most instances defaulters have just forgotten the invoice or perhaps there are problems preventing them for settling. We work with your customer in a professional and ethical manner to resolve payment issues (and all customers have access to our ClientWeb portal, so they can track incoming payments, plans and communication.) By working with a respected debt collection agency, we can protect your business relationship by taking you out of the equation.

If you would like to know more about how we work, please call 01527 549 522 or click here to send us an email.