Case Study
We began working with a client in Birmingham on their aged debt. They had previously not had any credit control carried out (Yikes!). Looking over their records we could see the majority of customers were very good payers, but a couple seemed to take an interesting interpretation of what 30 EOM month meant! We also noticed some debt had been around long enough to celebrate not one but two anniversaries! Our client thought that, having left this debt alone for two years, there was no chance of recovering it and had been too embarrassed to go after it. Luckily we don’t get embarrassed, we are simply asking for payment for services used and are quite happy to do so. If anything the late payer may be embarrassed that they have a debt so old to pay for services they were very happy with!
We set to work on their accounts, tackling the larger debts and the oldest unpaid invoices first. The two year old debt owner, as it turns out, had completely forgotten about this invoice and claimed to have no recall of ever receiving it. There was no malice intended, he wasn’t hoping for free services – he just needed a little reminder and a copy of the invoice! Once we issue the copy of the invoice we kept in touch to progress check it whilst it was being approved and processed. One very happy credit control client later, they no longer let debt run to two years without being chased, and we provide 10 hours support a month keeping on top of their current clients. With a business that issues invoices to approx 50 clients a month this keeps everything ticking over nicely for them.