How hard can it be to collect money? You call up the customer, remind him what he owes, because surely it’s just an oversight that he hasn’t paid yet and… presto, a check is put in the mail. It’s so easy a billing clerk can do it.
How hard can it be to extend credit? A promising prospect sends in a credit application with all of the information you’ll ever need and… presto, you open the account. It’s so easy even a customer service rep can do it.
The customer gets a little behind, so what do you do? Put him on C.O.D. until he pays down the balance. Presto! Problem solved. In fact, you can accelerate the process by applying all of the C.O.D. payments towards the old delinquent balance. That’ll make that old balance disappear in a flash.
The customer’s orders exceed his credit line causing a delay in the processing. What to do? Increase the credit limit, of course! Presto! Problem solved!
This must be why there is no college degree in Credit Management. It just does not require that many skills. Some common sense and the ability to operate a telephone are all it takes. Anyone can do it.
Ask anyone doing the job and you’ll probably get another perspective. You call the customer, remind him what he owes and he lies to you. Now you have to call him again and he lies to you again.
The information on the credit application looked so good, the customer seemed to be so honest, but the mail, particularly your invoices, keep coming back marked, “no such address”.
You put the customer on C.O.D. but he just stopped buying altogether. Now what?
Suddenly it’s not so easy.
Perhaps credit work does take more than a pleasant telephone voice. Maybe a degree from Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry would be beneficial. When you come down to it, to do the job well, credit managers must have the ability to read minds, predict the future and perform occasional acts of magic.
When the customer says he’s putting a check in the mail on Friday, it takes a pretty good mind reader to determine which Friday he’s referring to. You can pin him down to a specific date and time, but you still have to read his mind to determine if his intentions are pure.
When considering a credit application, you are actually attempting to predict the customer’s probable payment patterns as well as his longevity and financial soundness. In laymen terms that is predicting the future, pure and simple.
Then, the corporate account defaults and files bankruptcy but you pull out that personal guarantee and you find the principal has property he’s trying to protect. He pays you in full. Now, that’s pulling a rabbit out the hat!
You want a credit department that can predict the future, read minds and work magic? Contact CreditPowers. We can do the trick. We will evaluate the credit staff, give them the necessary tools, show them the way, and abracadabra, your receivables will be back in shape in no time.
For more information, e-mail us at patrickpowers@sbcglobal.net
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