Debt Recovery
Recovering money owed to your business has long been a difficult and time consuming task. Customers fall into a number of categories, with some simply forgetting to pay their invoices, and others deliberately avoiding payment. Understanding the differences between these type of customers and applying an appropriate collection technique is key to maximising the revenue back from your outstanding payments.
A debt recovery agency is experienced at doing just this, applying appropriate collections techniques based on customer types. This skill is becoming increasingly important given the rising number of outstanding debts and the difficulties that many firms are now facing in getting paid.
"£18.6 billion"
This was the amount owed to British small and medium sized businesses as quoted by the media in January 2008. This figure represented a rise of £2.6 billion from 2007. Consequently, 1 in 5 companies now employ someone to chase outstanding payments and it is estimated that the ‘average’ company loses 17 days every year purely on this job alone.
Further to this, the greatest problems in the UK lie in Greater London were companies are owed an average of £51,000. This amounts to almost 38 days a year spent chasing outstanding payments.
Unfortunately, present business conditions are such that it is becoming increasingly difficult and important for businesses to get paid on time. With the world economy in recession, businesses, private individuals and public authorities right across the world are taking longer to pay their bills.
With increasing complexity of payment methods and customer acquisition, the demands on company credit management teams are increasing.
Debt Recovery Services
To start with, UK SME’s need to have an effective and clear credit management process in order to minimise their exposure to potential bad debts. Our free downloadable guide “7 ways to reduce you business’s debts” outlines the things you should consider when looking at this area of your business.
At some point however, most businesses will be faced with the prospect of trying to recover outstanding receivables from a small proportion of their existing clients. Many businesses may either lack the necessary skills or resources to do this effectively and will look to outsource this part of the credit management process to a debt recovery agency.
Debt Recovery Solution - Not all are the same
Intrum Justitia is Europe’s leading provider of Credit Management Services, assisting more than 90,000 clients across the world in improving their cash flow and long term profitability. These clients range from large multi-national businesses to small privately owned companies, each with their own demands and requirements and each with the confidence to place their most valuable assets, their customers, into Intrum Justitia’s hands.
Our brand is recognised throughout the business and is in itself an asset when trying to obtain payment from customers. We recognise that a “one size fits all” approach is not appropriate given the broad demands of our client base and the unique nature of each business. Sophisticated campaigns integrate the most effective contact techniques and are combined with self serve web capability and one of the widest range of payment methods available.
Our contact centre is divided into sector and client specific teams. This allows them to develop a much deeper understanding of both the clients customers they are dealing with and the industry sectors to which they are assigned. The centre is also divided between business-to-business collections and business-to-consumer collections, recognising the distinct differences between collecting in these two areas.
The collection processes applied encompass a variety of methods including letters, telephone calls, SMS etc. depending upon the appropriateness of each. Where customers have moved or are proving a problem to locate, we can provide tracing facilities. Should it be necessary, we can also take legal action against the customer if authorised to do so by the client.
Intrum Justitia was founded over 80 years ago. In the UK we collect over £50 million in outstanding debts for our clients every year.
For further information regarding our debt recovery service, please go to On Demand Collections or call us on 0870 414 0044.
