Your customers are important, and you want to give them all the help and support they need when they run into financial difficulties. On the other hand, your business in West Chester, Pennsylvania, needs a constant cash flow to operate smoothly. That means you must find a way to balance customer relations with finances to keep your customers loyal and get paid. Read on for some ideas about how to do that.
Be Clear About Expectations
First, make sure your customers know your payment expectations right up front. Develop clear policies about payment schedules, interest, late fees, and collections, and give each customer a copy of these policies, either on paper or electronically. Explain verbally as well and ask your customers if they have any questions. This way, your customers can’t claim they didn’t know your expectations.
Communicate Well
When your customers make purchases, your task is to communicate well about how much they owe and when they must pay. This means creating invoices that are easy to read and then sending those invoices to your customers promptly and in a format they can easily access.
Some people may still prefer to receive invoices in the mail. In that case, send them well before they’re due. Other customers may prefer email invoices. Watch out, though, that you don’t attach files that are too large. This can delay the email or even prevent it from arriving at all. If you must send a PDF of several pages, for instance, use an easy PDF compressor to reduce file size without compromising the quality of your content.
Follow Up Promptly
If a customer is late making a payment, follow up promptly and politely. Don’t wait, but don’t make demands either. Send a notice in the form of a reminder. Often, customers have simply forgotten and appreciate being gently reminded. Wait for a few days, and then send a second notice with a copy of the invoice. At this point, you might remind your customers that late fees and other penalties may accrue if they don’t pay by a particular date.
Enforce Penalties
Hopefully, you don’t have to enforce penalties very often, but you must be willing to do so if necessary. Remember that you’ve advised your customers right upfront about the consequences if they don’t pay within a specific time. Sometimes you have to charge interest and penalties and perhaps even send the bill to a collection agency as a last resort. This doesn’t mean you can’t work with your customers on a case-by-case basis though, offering extensions under particular circumstances. Just be ready to protect your business as necessary.
Offer Incentives
Finally, consider offering some incentives to deter your customers from paying late and encourage them to pay early. You might start up a customer rewards program or offer a small discount for early payment. This tells your customers you value their business and their prompt payment.
Reduce Late Payments
You may not be able to eliminate all late payments, but by implementing these suggestions, you can at least reduce payment issues and deal with them effectively. Visit the Knowledge Hub Media website for more ideas to enhance your business practices.
