In all businesses, maintaining a steady stream of revenue is critical. Salaries must be paid, lights must be kept on, and tea and coffee need to be in the break room. When it comes to reporting to your supervisors, a positive number that puts your department in the black is always preferable.
Thus, keeping your incoming payments current and on time is critical. While you may not have power over your creditors’ payment patterns, there are methods you can take to minimise their behaviour and help manage their timeliness.
Allowing an overdue account to taint your annual report is a terrible thing. When it comes to reporting at the end of the financial year, using debt collection guidelines, or employing a debt collection agency to provide debt collection services will help you stay on the right side of upper management.
A great debt collection agency may benefit both you and your company, so we’ve compiled a list of the things you can come to expect from working with a professional and experienced debt collection agency. Our aim is to help you understand the benefits that come from working with a debt collector.
What can you expect from a good debt collection agency?
1. They Will Save Time
As someone in the business field, you know better than most that time is money, and that chasing down delinquent debtors can be both time demanding and draining on your emotional energies.
When it comes to chasing heavier debts, numerous phone calls and follow-up mails are common. And instead of being able to do your own day-to-day business-related tasks, you’re busy chasing payment installations.
Even if you have some debt collecting experience, certain situations can make the process relentless. Hence, hiring a debt collection agency can relieve you of the stress and allow you to focus on the important duties at hand.
2. A Professional Attitude is Observed
Without the need of being harsh and pushy towards your customers, a skilled debtor would still be able to persuade them to settle their accounts.
They will be well-versed and calm in debt collection, which will eventually reflect favourably on your company as a whole and contribute to your spotless reputation among the public and your peers.
An expert debt collector can see past the surface level problem and instead find the core of the problem, collaborating with the debtor to resolve the unpaid bill quickly and peacefully. The aim of a debt collector is never to intimidate or bully anyone into making payments – rather it is to help find a solution that is manageable for your debtor and gets you paid.
3. Understand the legalities around debt collection and recovery
Sometimes, an excellent understanding of legal parameters might be extremely useful. Law in general can be very difficult to understand, and when it comes to debt and financing, it could get even more confusing. To minimise or completely avoid the agony of legal action, collection agencies that work closely with debt recovery lawyers or that have a high level of experience, are there to help!
To ensure that everyone stays on track and avoids a costly day in court whenever feasible, a professional collection agent is familiar with the law, your rights as a creditor, and your client’s right, and they work within these parameters to get results.
4. Additional Services
Basic tracing techniques to discover debtors, SMS capabilities to extend communication lines, and a client portal for faster access to multiple files and data – those are some of the additional services reputable debt collection agencies often provide.
Debt collectors may also provide field calls, repossessions, customised document services, and legal assistance–all for a pre-approved fee. But all sensitive or confidential material should be treated with the highest care and professionally, it goes without saying.
Some debt collectors even offer credit consultancy services as well as credit reporting so you can vet your clients before they become debtors.
5. The Increase of your Success Rate
Debt recovery, like most things, is best left to the professionals. A professional can assist you in recovering your debts before they become old or forgotten, and a streamlined method can produce quick results that may not be attainable if the task is under-resourced. When it comes to recovering funds, choosing an experienced collection agency with a documented track record can result in a higher success rate as they can devote their time and resources to the task at hand. When you do it yourself, you still need to contend with all your other tasks and business requirements and either your debt recovery efforts are half baked, or you end up behind in your other tasks.
6. Be a Professional Partner
Working with a professional can be the most enjoyable part of the debt recovery process. You have wide open lines of communication, precise and transparent invoicing, and efficient use of your time with a dedicated account manager. Additionally, keeping track of progress is as simple as making a phone call for you have less raw data to sift through.
7. You will only be billed for what is retrieved.
Don’t let a bad debt cost your organisation more than it needs to when it comes to debt collecting expenses. When the debt has been recovered, then that’s the only time a good recovery agent charges you. Avoid lock-in contracts since they can add to expenses if the debts are ultimately unrecoverable.
Don’t let late payments impede your company’s success when it comes to delinquent accounts. Here at JMA, we can help your business recover debts today. We work with small to medium sized businesses throughout Australia, with offices conveniently located in Melbourne, Sydney, and Brisbane. Our team also has more than 50 years of experience, and with a personal account manager, an online portal to view the progress of your service and a ‘no recovery, no commission’ policy, you know that you’re in the best hands with JMA.
Call us today on 1300 664 223 to chat all things debt recovery.
