What does outsourced credit control mean?
In simple terms, credit control means, chasing and looking after your credit. For example, phoning a customer to remind them about an outstanding payment is an example of credit control.
Outsourcing credit control means employing someone else to do the chasing for you. You can spend your time on more important, practical tasks to help your business whilst someone else follows up your missing payments.
What is included in outsourced credit control services?
There are many positives to outsourced credit control. Crucially it can free up time for you to concentrate on value-adding aspects of your business – instead of chasing invoices. Each agency you choose to go with may have a slight variation in their services and packages but it’s likely they will include
- Weekly or monthly reporting and updates
- A series of confidential credit control calls, emails and letters for due balances
- Monitoring of lapsed verified payment dates with follow-up phone calls
- Credit checks / Risk Assessments
- Further communication where necessary to secure payment
- A dedicated phoneline
Credit Control Outsourcing Companies
Each agency will offer a variety of package options and credit control services, so it’s important to have a look around. The size of your business, the amount of credit you need claiming and financial ties may all affect your choices. At Taurus we have complete transparency and can offer you advice and point you in the right direction. We have over 15 years of experience and understand the difficulty business owners face when confronting clients for settling overdue invoices. We work tirelessly to help improve your cash flow and get your outstanding invoices paid.
What are the benefits?
- Improved cash flow – Speeding up payment of invoices reduces the cost of borrowing, increasing profit and working capital, allowing for investment in growth.
- Reduced bad debt- An effective credit control function will use an escalation process to ensure that you are paid as a priority. The longer a debt goes unpaid, the more likely it becomes that it will not be paid at all.
- Maintaining relationships – Chasing for money can be a tricky business especially if you have built reliable relationships with your clients. Sometimes businesses do not want to have those conversations for fear of losing future business from the client. One of the most important aspects of having a successful business is having good customer service relationships. A professional outsourced credit control company will ensure that your customers pay promptly whilst receiving excellent customer service – with no detrimental effect on your ongoing business.
- Access to legal knowledge – At Taurus, we can escalate your claim if the credit remains unpaid or problems start to arise. We can refer to our own debt collection team or in-house solicitor. We provide advice to our clients on tightening up sales processes and terms of business to improve the overall financial well-being and business capabilities.
- Saving you money – Outsourcing credit control can have a very positive effect. Both on the profit of a business due to improvements in cash flow and reduced bad debt.There are endless benefits and possibilities of outsourcing credit control. If you have any questions, or want to know if outsourcing credit control is right for you, and your business, contact us today.