We don’t know anyone who actually wants to make it harder to collect invoices, but here are some common issues that result in this scenario.
Repeatedly Invoice Incorrectly
Develop a reputation with your customer for sending invoices with wrong information is a great way to end up at the bottom of their list to process. Regardless of the cause (e.g. wrong prices, back-orders, miss shipments, incomplete purchase orders), the result is delayed payment.
Don’t Listen
If you won’t listen to them, why should they listen to you?
Delay Resolving Disputes
You cannot collect while a dispute is unresolved. Regardless of the reason (too busy, can’t get internal cooperation, can’t locate documents, etc.), the longer it takes you, the longer your payment gets delayed. Wait long enough, and it becomes even harder as the necessary information, including people’s memory of the transaction, is more difficult to compile.
Automated Nasty-grams
Keep sending automated, increasingly nastier letters on disputed invoices that you haven’t had time to deal with to resolve. Keep reminding them of your failure to address the issues while threatening them to take escalated action. They’ll remember this unpleasant treatment long after the particular dispute is resolved.
Bounce Them Around Your Company
“I can’t answer that question, you need to talk to _____”. Make it their job to sort things out with the various people in your company.
Treat All Customers The Same
Sure, policies and procedures are required for efficiency and effectiveness. But not all customers are the same. Refuse to develop different approaches, or even policies and procedures, and you can end up with repeated payment issues.
At The Kaplan Group, we get a large number of claims at our B2B collection agency that reflect one or more of these issues. We’ve become experts at dispute resolution with resultant collections while trying to preserve vendor-customer affinity. We understand that for clients where this is a rare occurrence, turning it over to us for the intensive time commitment and expertise required makes economic sense. But, we have concern for our clients and their long-term customer relationships if we see this too often.