Do you have customers that owe you money? Do you call and send letters and only end up frustrated? Here are some collection tips to help you stop being frustrated and collect some of the money that is owed to you.
Make your first collection call when the debt is 5 days past terms.
This can be a friendly call where you just tell the customer that you want to make sure they received the invoice and that there weren't any problems. If they say, they did receive it and there aren't any problems, ask them if the invoice has been scheduled for payment and when you can expect the check. Be very friendly and nice, always keep your tone friendly (if this is a first offense) and portray an attitude of trying to help.
Send a letter confirming your conversation the same day.
After you take the first step of calling after the invoice is 5 days past due, send a letter confirming whatever was said in your phone conversation. The letter can be very nice, and if needed enclose a copy of the invoice. Just state that you wanted to thank them for speaking with you today and confirm that a check in the amount of $ will be mailed on whatever date as per our conversation.
Make personal visits to the debtor.
If the debtor is local, you can stop by anytime to pick up payment. A trick I use is to make it a habit to stop by other times as well, when you are not picking up a payment. Then if the customer is past due and you go in, just be friendly and say you were in the neighborhood and know there is an invoice that's past due and thought you would just stop by and pick up the check. This usually works pretty well, and in most cases will only have to be done once.
When calling a debtor, speak as though confident the payment was made.
For example, you might say, "I know you said you were going to send your check last week, but I haven't received it, which day did you send it on?", instead of, "I didn't receive your check, did you send it yet?" When they stumble with an answer and say the check was not mailed, act very surprised and ask, "Oh, why not? You'll be mailing that today then?" This usually works pretty well; it causes the debtor to feel a little embarrassed, but they can easily save face by paying immediately.
When making collection call, ask a question and then remain silent.
No matter how long the silence goes on, DO NOT SPEAK! Just remember, if you're feeling uncomfortable with the silence, the debtor is feeling just as uncomfortable if not more. Let them break the silence with an answer. This is tough the first few times, but it works great. You will get used to it after a while and find that it works well.
Michelle Dunn started and successfully ran M.A.D. Collection Agency for 8 years, and has received wide press with articles appearing in Ladies Home Journal, PC World, and many other magazines and newspapers. Michelle owns and operates www.Credit-and-Collections.com (an online professional collections community for networking and discussions) and Never Dunn Publishing, LLC.
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