What can debt collection do for your business? Many business owners who run into difficulties in getting paid ask themselves this question. Is debt collection right for me? What can it do to my business? Should I do it myself or outsource?
What Can Debt Collection Do For You?
At TrueAccord, we believe that debt collection is a natural part of the value chain of business. While many think of debt collectors as “the bad guys who harass people”, we strive to redefine what Debt Collection 2.0 can be. At its best, debt collection augments your internal efforts to get paid, adding a qualified third party who not only has access to tools you don’t have, but also has more negotiation experience. Specifically, more experience negotiating with people who are not able, or not willing, to pay you.
A good debt collector can help you with proactive loss management, resulting in a significant increase in the money you get paid. Since it’s money you already worked for, it goes right to your bottom line. What can be better?
Is Debt Collection Right For You?
Do you have customers who owe you money? Do you feel frustrated or unhappy with the way you handle them? Do you have customers who just seem bent on not paying you? Are there customers you almost lost hope with? If you answered yes to one or more of these questions, you need help recovering money you’re owed. Debt collection is a cheaper alternative to keeping a lawyer on staff or suing customers, especially if the relationship has become adversarial.
One of the things we learned at TrueAccord is the debt collection has a strong relationship component. When defaulted customers pay through us, they often do so because they feel that they’re being heard for the first time since their dispute with our merchants started. It happens that a customer has a bad customer care experience, some billing error, a misunderstanding about an invoice, and suddenly they’re 90 days behind. Sure, a lot of late customers are just making excuses – but that’s why we’re there, to deal with them. You need to choose the right one, but using a third party service will get you far in collecting in those unfortunate cases, and when done correctly, will also help salvage that lost relationship.
Should I Do It Myself Or Outsource?
We support, encourage even, that you talk to your customers before sending them to us. In fact, a structured process is key to not only getting paid yourself, but also increasing the chances that we can recover for you. If you can afford it, assign an employee to make phone calls to late payers (and don’t forget to teach them how to handle excuses). Then, after the first few weeks (we recommend 15-30 days past due), you can ship them over and let us take care of them. A good debt collector will recover money; a great collector will recover money, plus some of your old customers, and help you grow your business. Think about us as your SWAT team, coming in when previous effort have failed. And, best of all, you only pay us when we collect.