To manage receivables effectively, it’s important to know the rest of your business. Who the staff are in the other business units, what areas they look after – and which customers they manage.
To better understand your customer and their potential credit issues, a formidable weapon in your credit management armoury is the company’s sales force.
The sales team, or account managers, are your agents in the field when you need information on a customer. They are on the front line, communicating with that customer face-to-face, and over the phone. If they’re a good sales team, they will have regular contact with your customer. As it’s their job to know, the account manager will know what the customer likes – and what they dislike. How they like to be contacted, the tone of the contact, and the customer culture are all integral components of keeping both parties happy when it comes to managing that account. If you start experiencing issues with a customer’s payments, contacting the appropriate account manager should be part of your process. They can answer questions such as:
- Has the customer had to let anyone go recently?
- How does the business look inside and out – is it well-kept or rundown?
- Have they mentioned a decline in sales?
- Are they quiet? Busy?
- Have any key personnel left? Are they hiring? Are they looking at redundancies?
The answers to these questions can help form an idea of that particular customer’s current situation. The information can also be used to form the basis of the action you decide to take. Delays in payment may be due to something as benign as an accounts manager going on maternity leave – or something a little more serious.
To establish a cohesive management of your customer base, with a view to strengthening and building upon the customer relationship and to hopefully growing the business, you will need to ensure the other business units are aware of what you do, how you work, and what your processes are. You will also need to understand how you and your team’s actions may affect another business unit, and the staff within those business units, and to have open lines of communication to deliver a unified, strategic management of your customer.
Use the force.