Steps Towards Effective Debt Collection

Though Debt collection isn’t the most attractive task for business owners, but it’s necessary for keeping a healthy cash flow. Every business is owed money at some point, but what do you do if the debtor decides not to pay up? Debt collection is the art of getting your invoices paid, and, more so, getting them paid on time.

An increasing number of small and medium sized businesses are finding late payment and bad debts to be a serious problem. A survey by Altradius has shown that bad debt is now a problem for over 20% of SME’s; while a third are also suffering because of late payment.

Debt collectors are people, other than the creditors, who regularly collect debts owed to others and/or are contracted by creditors to collect debts. This would include attorneys who regularly collect debts, collection agencies, private collections companies, and individual debt collectors.

Some of the steps that a business can start off with to enhance the debt collection process can be summarized as –

• Contracts – Entering into a legal contract with your customer specifies how and when payment will be made to you. By signing it, the customer is agreeing to your Terms of Trade before you provide your services to them. Your solicitor should be the right person to help draw up a contract (or terms and conditions) for your business to ensure you have the right legal protection in case ever you have to start chasing up debts.

• A well planned and structured Debt Recovery System – Implementing a debt recovery system does make the task of Debt Collection process easier for your business. Yes, agreed that it doesn’t still ensure that all clients would repay on time, still if these recovery systems include some benefits for regular repayers and also some considerations and leniency towards the defaulters, chances of debt recovery are higher.

• Have the debt collection plan integrated – Integrating debt collection into your general accounting system will reap instant rewards. Generating collection letters and telephoning clients at scheduled intervals is recommended (ex. 14, 30 and 60 days). If a debtor makes a promise to pay by a certain time, make a note of it and diarise the matter for a follow up telephone call if the promise is not fulfilled. It has been noticed that the Telephone calls or personal visits are more effective than letters.

• Hiring a Recovery Agency – When all your measures start to fail, before going to the legalities, you can also consider hiring some professional debt collection agency. These agencies are proficient and well versed with the laws and prevalent rules and regulations and they can be asked to act on your behalf.

• When everything else fails, the last resort that you have, is to take the matters to the court of law.

At Guardian Credit Services, we understand your professional image and provide you result oriented solutions with a 30 day money back guarantee. Our programs have a 90 percent success rate and because of the ease of use of our programs, you will no longer have to put up with the negativity and hassle of chasing your debtors. For more details to visit us: http://www.australiadebtcollection.com.au/

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How to Evaluate your Collection Agency

A collection agency is a business that pursues payments of debts owed by individuals or businesses. Most collection agencies operate as agents of creditors and collect debts for a fee or percentage of the total amount owed.

Selecting a collection agency – or evaluating the one you have – can improve bottom line results while maintaining your professional image.  When determining the profile of prospective collection agencies or even assessing the one you already have, you should consider the following –

1.      The Age of the Collection Agency – You would definitely want to deal with organization’s which are stable and have a great reputation as a collection agency. It is normally accepted fact that if the agency has been functional over years, the age ensures the effectiveness and expertise which in business terms evaluates to a larger number of satisfied clients. It is definitely smarter to put your receivables in the hands of professionals with a proven track record.

2.      Verifiable clients as references – When evaluating a Collection Agency, it is walys beneficial to ask them for a few client references specially the ones who have been in your kind of business.  Normally, successful collection agencies will not have any hesitations in sharing a few of their clients in your niche but if you are told that the client list is “confidential,” you are looking at a bright-red warning flag. It is your right to ask for references and once you have a list, you should contact them personally to ascertain their levels of satisfaction with the Collection Agency.

3.      Their Key Employees – These are the people who actively run the business of the collection agency. As such, you should meet them (maybe personally or even via telephonic calls) and try to assess their experience, maturity and principal values. You have to ensure that these key people are aware of the various rules, laws and you should also try to ascertain whether they answer your queries to your satisfaction. While dealing with them, you have to use your experience to evaluate their expertise and if all goes well, you have to trust your instincts.

4.      The Workplace – We would recommend a personal visit to the Collection Agency office but if you cannot do it for certain reasons, it would also be good if you can manage to send someone known to you for an assessment of how professional their workplace is.

5.      Customized Collection Strategies – This is one of the most essential criteria. Just as every individual is unique and different, so is every business and profession. One cannot use the same set of modus operandi for every client. As such, you should ask if the collection agency has any custom made strategy which is specifically designed keeping in view your business, professional image and reputation.

At Guardian Credit Services, we understand your professional image and provide you result oriented solutions with a 30 day money back guarantee. Our programs have a 90 percent success rate and because of the ease of use of our programs, you will no longer have to put up with the negativity and hassle of chasing your debtors.

Visit http://www.australiadebtcollection.com.au/ for debt consolidation advice and see how Financial obligations.

 

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