Keep the cash flowing to the heart of your business

With Valentine’s Day nearing, The Better Payment Practice Group [BPPG] is urging small businesses to apply extra care and attention to their customers in an effort to collect outstanding debts.

Some businesses may be suffering from late payment because of a failure to deal effectively with queries and complaints from their customers. Such issues should be addressed as soon as they arise to ensure that there is no excuse for non-payment of the outstanding debt.

• The BPPG recommends that small businesses invest time into implementing an effective queries/complaints procedure which incorporates the following:

• A timeframe for raising complaints/queries in the terms and conditions provided to the customer;

• Strong communication between sales staff and the individual responsible for managing the accounts;

• A quick response to the customer in acknowledgement of their query;

• The use of delivery notes, signed by the customer, to document receipt of goods.

Small businesses should also bear in mind that collection of an outstanding debt need not grind to a halt just because a query has been raised. While resolving the query around the payment or part-payment in question, the creditor is still entitled to demand payment for any other outstanding monies.

Kurt Obermaier, Executive Director of the Credit Services Association, commented: “Whatever the nature of the query from the customer, the onus is firmly upon the creditor to resolve the problem fast. Otherwise the customer will feel perfectly justified in withholding payment of all or part of the relevant amount until the creditor’s system gets itself sufficiently organised to respond to the point which has been raised.”

The Credit Services Association is a member of the Better Payment Practice Group.

You can keep up to date with the Better Payment Practice Campaign by sending us an email