Optimize dunning and collection of your customer invoices
Contents :
- What is a customer reminder?
- Best practices for relaunching a customer :
- Personalize your messages :
- Grading the importance of messages :
- Monitor all customers:
- Simplify payment :
- Automate customer reminders with collection software :
L’optimizing customer reminders is now a key action for all companies wishing to limit the risk of risks of non-payment. A customer risk that could lead to cash deficit. And which, sometimes, are the cause of a cessation of activity.
To protect yourself against this, you need to monitor your customers on a daily basis. credit management. It’s a real investment.
It is advisable to invest dunning management as soon as possible, especially from the start-up phase.
What is a customer reminder?
The customer reminder consists of contacting customers with the aim of optimizing collection of the company. A good dunning management enables :
- Reduce your DSO (Days Sales Outstanding),
- Maintain the company’s financial health,
- Avoid cash flow cash flow,
Contrary to popular belief customer reminder is not only used in the event of late payment late payment. It can also be used to courteously notify the customer of the next deadline.
Reminders can take a variety of forms, such as a text message, a message on social networks, an e-mail, a phone call, a letter or a registered letter.
The method often depends on the degree of importance of the customer reminder and the proximity with the customer.
It’s generally customary to start with an e-mail and end with a registered letter.
In the event of late paymentthe aim is to remind the customer to pay his bill promptly.
This reminder is an opportunity to engage in a dialogue to understand the reason for the delay.
In the event of a payment reminderthe reminder allows the customer to take steps to pay the invoice on time.
Best practices for relaunching a customer :
How do you set up a reminder system that works? What mistakes should you avoid? We explain it all, along with a few time-saving best practices.
Personalize your messages :
The first best practice is to personalize your message using variables. The customer’s first and last name, customer number, company name, address, VAT number, SIREN and SIRET numbers, and invoice amount.
But you can also add more personal variables that affect your customer relations. We could talk about Ice Breaker in English. A phrase or several that can bring you closer together and give the feeling that your e-mail and your reminder are a natural fit.
Why is this important? In the case of a late payment or reminder reminderThe aim of your reminder is to get you to pay your invoice.
The customer must therefore feel concerned by your reminders. Here is an example of a dunning e-mail prepared by Aston AI (which offers a collection solution):
___
COMPANY : [[CustomerName]]
CUSTOMER NUMBER: [[CustomerClientCode]]
[CurrentDate]][[SignatoryCompanyCity]]
Dear Sir/Madam,
Except in the case of error or omission on our part, examination of your account shows that we have not received payment for the invoices listed in the joint account statement.
Total balance due to us : [[CustomerInvoicingExpiredOutstandingAmount]]
Please rectify this situation as soon as you receive this letter.
We are convinced that this is simply an oversight. Please accept, Sir or Madam, the assurance of our highest consideration.
[SignatoryFirstName]] [[SignatoryLastName]]
Collections Department
[SignatoryEmail
[SignatoryPhoneNumber
[CompanyLogo
If your payment was made upon receipt of this e-mail, please disregard this reminder and accept our apologies.
Grading the importance of messages :
Personalizing e-mails is a great thing, but being able to scale them with the help of a typical customer journey brings more performance to your collection campaigns.
What should I do if the customer doesn’t reply to my first message? How many messages should I send?
You need to create scenarios in which e-mail scaling is applied. For example, a e-mail reminder a few days before the due date to notify the customer of the next payment. The aim is to to remind you early to avoid a possible oversight.
A second reminder on D-day. Then, if he still hasn’t paid his bill, further, firmer reminders by e-mail and telephone.
In this case, you should not hesitate to adopt a multi-channel multi-channel approach. This will help increase your chances of recovery.
If your customer does not respond to your correspondence, you can consider registered mail, then an amicable collection procedure, and finally legal proceedings. legal proceedings.
Monitor all customers:
This collection method works if you apply it to all your customers. What does this mean?
This means that if you do it for one of the bad payersyou must apply the collection method to all bad payers.
Indeed, what credibility would you have if you paid only a tiny fraction of your customer receivables? customer receivables. Apart from the fact that it could seriously damage your cash flow.
You therefore have an obligation to keep track of all your customers in order to maintain your reputation and reduce your DSO.
Otherwise, companies might think that the quality of the offer or service you deliver isn’t up to scratch, or that you can’t afford to charge.
Simplify payment :
Any dunning is actionable if kept simple. Your goal is to recover your accounts receivable. You need to make it easy for your customers to do business with you. Especially if they have trouble paying your bills on time. It’s a principle you need to keep in mind. So you need to set up a simple payment solution.
For example, a payment link by credit card may appear in your e-mail. If you opt for a bank transfer solution, you need to clearly display your company’s bank details.
Your customer needs to find all the information he needs immediately, and if possible complete the transaction with as little action as possible.
Automate customer reminders with collection software :
It’s not always easy to keep track of your customers. And it’s often more complicated to keep up with your relaunches.
Aston AI is a collection software that automates and customizes customer and personalize customer dunning and collection through a multi-channel approach, analyzes customer riskoffers a payment linkas well as an invoicing system displays a customer dashboard for real-time monitoring of all its customers, etc.
