Debt collections strategies all point to sooner is better. Debt isn't
like a fine wine, it doesn't get better with age. Your accounts team
should trigger their collections process beginning the day the account
becomes delinquent. However, in the world of streamlining, reductions in
staff, and increasing cost; just focusing on new clients becomes more
difficult when bogged down with chasing old money.
According to
the Dartnell Institute, the average cost of working an account
internally over a six month period is $31.60 per account*. Compared to
your own in-house process how do you stack up? Outsourcing this task
will save you time and money and at a low cost per account you save
yourself the hassle of dealing with the people who have stiffed you.
Depending on the type and amount of claims you submit you could be
having a whole team of professional collectors working your claims for
an average of $7.00. You have now already saved over $20.00 by taking
the first step. The biggest value add when dealing with flat fee
collections is that you receive 100% of your money back.
Using
this approach according to allbusiness.com's article "The Business of
Outsourcing for Small Businesses", one of the major factors influencing
the initiation of outsourcing is being able to focus on your core
business. Trying to recover old money just wastes your time and money
when you could outsource collections actions to professionals who
integrate with you or your company to systematize the process of
gathering up the past dues that are owed to you.
Think outside the box!
Think
outside the box! Don't continue with processes that may not be giving
you the return you deserve. Drastically reduce your in-house costs and
enable your staff to concentrate on the earlier aged receivables,
correcting problems/disputes, new invoicing, etc., thereby ultimately
reducing the number of accounts that would typically go into the 90 day
category that probably never should have. In other words, they ended up
there due to a dispute/problem or billing error that no one had time to
look into.
Recap:
- Focus on your core business by outsourcing collections tasks.
- Save time and money using a flat fee approach to collections.
- Reduce the number of accounts reaching 90 plus days delinquent.
- Get the money owed you back faster.
- Play a proactive active role in your collections process.
