Yet through obstacles like these, you gain valuable learnings and insights into consumer behaviour, your market, and business in general.
One area where you may run into hurdles is during debt recovery.
Healthy cash flow is instrumental to running a successful business, with the power to turn a struggling operation into a happy one.
In this blog, we explore some of the biggest obstacles that businesses run into during debt recovery.
Small businesses are known for moving quickly to try and hit the ground running. Often this comes at the expense of critical details, such as setting up a clear and streamlined way of doing things that everyone in the organisation can follow.
Taking the time to create internal processes and communicate these clearly with your team will ensure everyone is singing from the same song sheet.
It is also important to build and clearly communicate your external policies with customers, such as payment terms and cancellation policies so that there are no gaps in the system and everyone is clear and happy with the arrangement.
What can you do about it?
Another common small business debt recovery problem is not having the time to follow up debts, despite the best intentions.
It can be easy to procrastinate because you are either too busy or would honestly rather be doing something other than chasing your customers for debt collection. The days and hours after a debt falls overdue are critical.
We should also remember that trying to do everything yourself is often not the most productive use of your time. If you are not adequately resourced for prompt debt collection, now is the time to sort it out.
What can you do about it?
It can be uncomfortable having tricky conversations, especially if it’s not part of your everyday practise. There is also the added worry of potentially damaging relationships and losing rapport with your customers, which many find a challenge of debt collection.
It is also common within small business to lack experience in conflict management or not be fluent in the type of language to use. Many of our small debt collection clients describe the feeling of having ‘put their foot in it’ when it comes to their debt recovery conversations and have felt relieved once they have handed over the problem to EC Credit Control’s team to navigate.
What can you do about it?
The reality is that your customers and their businesses may be declared insolvent without much warning. While customer bankruptcy is not an everyday occurrence, it is especially relevant to consider in the context of today’s COVID-19 pandemic and economic environment and can be particularly painful if you have customers with large balances owing.
Whatever the reasons small business fail, if this has happened you will want to ensure your chance of debt recovery is as strong as possible.
What can you do about it?
If your business sells to a large number of customers and offers them credit terms, often the sheer scale of your customer base can be the biggest debt collection challenge your small business faces.
With more people to follow up, it can become really hard work to reconcile your payments and keep track of all the outstanding debts. In our experience, this often results in customers and invoices slipping between the cracks, either by forgetting to firstly invoice them or failing to realise they have fallen behind and following up.
Whether you run an accountancy practice or a lawnmowing business, you are going to want to effectively manage each customer on your books with care.
What can you do about it?
These are just a couple of things you can implement within your business.
If you are noticing changes in a customer’s payment behaviour, we can help. Let’s chat through your options in more detail.
Fill in your details and your Business Support Specialist will be in touch within the day to arrange a suitable time to catch up.
Daniella Crugnale26. September, 2024.Great Debt collection company. it's a one off small payment on each debt. and commission on what they get back for you. other companies charge you per week and make you sign up with a $200 member fee. very happy with your service . hopefully I don't have use you guys again. but if we need to, you are on our terms and conditions if customer don't pay they pay for the commission too. thanks again!Nathan Carson23. September, 2024.EC Credit Control are easy to work with and treat all parties with respect. Their assistance in resolving unpaid invoices and disputes is greatly appreciated for our small business.Jeremy Martens9. September, 2024.They have created excellent documents for us and regularly keep us updated with legal changes. We really appreciate their product and service. Thanks.Bear Plumbing Pty Ltd12. August, 2024.We have been working with EC Credit Control for over 15 years. They have always provided us with great service. Always proactive in providing us the latest changes in our terms of trade, privacy policies, as well as a very easy to use debt collection service.HELEN RICHARDS8. August, 2024.Amazing to deal with. Streamline process and all via email so things could be completed. Highly recommend!Amitis Dental Studio6. August, 2024.Great service from Tanya and resolved all our business needs!Alejandra Perez6. August, 2024.EC Credit control has been great at looking after the needs of my business. Fast and efficient and excellent customer service. Would definitely recommend them!Brendon Neal1. August, 2024.Tanya made it an easy step to get our T&Cs updated. Highly recommendedAlan Faulkner25. July, 2024.Just started using EC Credit Control & even though ours was only a small debt (around $300) they could not have been more helpful...& better still, we received full payment within a few days. Couldn't be happier! - Alan Faulkner
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