The majority firms have a Credit Control Department. Even the majority One-Man operations have a policy and system of some sort. The upset for many firms begins when the debtor just doesn’t pay. The Accounts Department send out statements and reminders, until, at a certain point they send out a final demand, before finally passing the responsibility for the debt over to a specialist debt recovery firm.

At this point the business relationship with the debtor is well and truly broken beyond repair, and you, the Creditor have lost control of how the debt will be recovered.

A much better way to approach this problem is to use a little psychology. If the debtor is made to understand that he’s being closely supervised and to some degree pursued by an unrelenting system that clearly persuades him that once he’s crossed a certain line, inescapable additional costs will be imposed, he’s much more likely to start to play ball. In particular when it’s further made clear to him that the longer he delays, the greater the additional costs will be.

To benefit from this approach efficientlt, you need a Debt Collection Process which flawlessly follows on from your usual existing Credit Control process. A single Debt Collection Letter is not the solution. In order to get paid without going to court, your Debt Collection Process needs to include a series of Debt Collection Letters, each one increasing the consequences, and warning of real financial penalties for none payment. These penalties are then seen to be automatically applied by subsequent letters in the process, until the debt is paid.

In well over 85% of cases, implementing a proper integrated Debt Collection Process into your interactions with slow and bad payers will stamp out the problem of very slow and none-payers.

In the minority of cases where you may have to take your case to the county court, using a Debt Collection Process will make sure that you have all the necessary documents in proper order, and you’ll be able to put an indisputable case before the court. In addition, you’ll have a very clear and accurate picture of the extra charges you’ll be able to claim for your administration and late-payment interest.

The really good thing about integrating such a process into your systems, is that its seamless character & progressive build up of real financial penalties ensures that you always become “the creditor who must be paid” no matter how difficult the purse strings get.

Using a Seamless Debt Collection Process, you train your customers into invariably paying you on time. You may even find that they go on to implement the same system as you. Then you know you’ll have a good secure customer for years to come.