All this talk of contracts and collections has me curious on something. How many of you who have smaller companies do your own collections of payment?
My father-in-law believes that we should do a walk through with the homeowner the day the job is done and collect the payment from them right then and there, which is fine in a perfect world. My problem is with the way he wants past due accounts handled, which is basically the same way...showing up at the customers home until payment is remitted.
I've done collections for various local and national companies for many years, and disagree. Here's what my plan is: 1) if walk through proves job was completeded successfully, and bill has not been paid within 15-30 days past completion, a letter and invoice copy gets mailed to customer by the *office manager/accounts receivable rep*, just stating it's a friendly reminder that bill needs to be paid within 15-30 days......time passes, still unpaid.....another letter/invoice is mailed by office personnel, and they also make a phone call requesting that payment be made, or a payment plan be arranged by *** date or there will be a possibility of the bill being sent to collections. This goes on until bill is paid or a lien/collections action is placed, with further pressure being placed as time goes on.
My main 'thing' is that the salesman/owner/manager should not have anything to do with the collections process past the initial walk-through. (This only applies to businesses that aren't a 'one-man show',of course). I think it looks desperate to the customer, but mostly, I believe the customer will always retain the memory of that person being the 'bad guy', or hold such embarrassment that if they should need any further work done, they will avoid the 'offending' company forevermore, and might even bad mouth them to other potential customers. Thoughts?
My father-in-law believes that we should do a walk through with the homeowner the day the job is done and collect the payment from them right then and there, which is fine in a perfect world. My problem is with the way he wants past due accounts handled, which is basically the same way...showing up at the customers home until payment is remitted.
I've done collections for various local and national companies for many years, and disagree. Here's what my plan is: 1) if walk through proves job was completeded successfully, and bill has not been paid within 15-30 days past completion, a letter and invoice copy gets mailed to customer by the *office manager/accounts receivable rep*, just stating it's a friendly reminder that bill needs to be paid within 15-30 days......time passes, still unpaid.....another letter/invoice is mailed by office personnel, and they also make a phone call requesting that payment be made, or a payment plan be arranged by *** date or there will be a possibility of the bill being sent to collections. This goes on until bill is paid or a lien/collections action is placed, with further pressure being placed as time goes on.
My main 'thing' is that the salesman/owner/manager should not have anything to do with the collections process past the initial walk-through. (This only applies to businesses that aren't a 'one-man show',of course). I think it looks desperate to the customer, but mostly, I believe the customer will always retain the memory of that person being the 'bad guy', or hold such embarrassment that if they should need any further work done, they will avoid the 'offending' company forevermore, and might even bad mouth them to other potential customers. Thoughts?
