Q: TekCollect, my company has a small staff but we are very busy. We aren’t keeping up with our delinquent client accounts because we simply don’t have time. What to do? – Strained Staff

A: Great question! Businesses of all sizes operate with a lean, skilled staff that handles a good deal of client interactions in addition to their administrative work load. As a result, your staff are faced with daily challenges – choosing the best way to manage their time while handling the critical tasks that must be done each day to keep your company running. Additionally, you as business leaders are immersed in driving forward operations and growth. Meanwhile, your untouched A/R is becoming a serious issue. The best way to handle this is simply to outsource it to a trusted third party. Why?

• It keeps your staff focused on your important operations and client interactions. You hired experts in their chosen fields – consider the same for your A/R.
• A third party is trained in the latest laws and strategies to best return your funds. If your admin team is not versed in the laws as they change, their contacts to your clients could be cause for litigation.
• As the leader of your company, you can concentrate your efforts on core company initiatives. Many of our clients admit to being better at their company focus than business management – and that’s ok! Find a trusted source for your cash flow management and rest easy.
  

Q: TekCollect, I’m worried about upsetting the clients who are slow to pay, but some of them are beginning to rack up tabs with my company. Advice? – Feeling Awkward

A: Often times, your slow paying clients pose more than just a time drain for you and your team – approaching them about money while maintaining rapport can be anxiety-inducing! Client relationships are one of the most important facets of your business, so retaining a client – even through a debt situation – is critical. Luckily, there are now programs available that focus on early intervention, meaning your clients are contacted within 30-60 days after becoming delinquent. Communication is friendly and customer service-focused, giving your clients a chance to honor their financial obligation without feeling hassled or ashamed. Most importantly, it takes you out of the collection business – clients are paying their bills earlier, remaining productive members of your roster, and you’re recapturing your deserved income.

Q: Aren’t write offs the cost of doing business? I never looked at how much new business I need to bring in to offset my losses – but perhaps I should be? – Write Or Wrong

A: Our clients are discovering that write offs can become a thing of the past – with the right cash flow management partner. Let’s put it this way: Say you were to write off $20,000 .00 for 2015. In order to recuperate that loss, you would need to bring in $200,000.00 of additional business – just to break even! Many organizations do not realize the true cost of a write off in terms of overall business health. Now, what if - instead of writing off that original sum, you invest a small percentage of that into an A/R management system that could bring in more than 60% of that income for a fee that typically costs less than 5%? There are programs available that fit businesses of every size, with easy to use software and real time reporting. Business owners who use our services are reporting a 75% boost in their A/R, with the majority of their funds collected within 90 days of account placement. So before you get to the end of your calendar year, start making plans to re-capture your lost income, rather than write it off. Your business, your staff, and your bottom line will thank you for it.

TekCollect provides the most advanced accounts receivable, collections, and client retention services available. To learn more about us, visit our website and follow us on Facebook and Twitter.

 

It’s pretty common to hear the phrase ‘I wear many hats’ in a business environment of any size. Higher value is being placed on employees that can perform tasks spanning all sorts of disciplines. Although it’s become the reality of our professional culture, emerging research conducted at Stanford University shows that multi-tasking can prove to be less productive than sticking to one main task at a time.

 With most businesses wanting more productivity out of a smaller staff, it’s important to key in on where streamlining can take place. There is a core set of strengths that your administrative team boasts – a set of strengths where you can confidently say are unique to your business and its operations. But there are disciplines that you’d definitely leave to experts: legal, tax specialists, IT, compliance, etc.

Why?:

• A mistake in one of these areas can be costly – more so than the up-front cost to outsource.
  
• The training/expertise you’d need to invest for your staff to operate at the level of a specialist outweighs the ROI.
  
• The time your staff spends in these areas pulls them away from customer service and their other primary responsibilities.
  
• Asking your staff to handle specialized/delicate tasks in the midst of their already busy day results in lower all-around productivity.
  

Now, look at those talking points through the lens of A/R management. It may seem less expensive to keep your pursuit of slow-pay accounts in-house, but what are the real rewards?

Ask Yourself:

• Are your staff members well versed in the ever-changing collection laws? 
  
• Have they been trained to handle outgoing collections calls to your customers, and do you know what they are saying to get that money back?
  
• Are they comfortable playing a dual role of service provider while also pursuing outstanding income? 
  
• Are they spending a good portion of their day in A/R management mode, when they could be focused on your business? 
  

A/R management is a specialty. Asking a staff member to multitask your A/R management is like asking them to act as your legal counsel. You’d be surprised at how affordable third party A/R management can be – and your staff will definitely thank you for it.

TekCollect provides the most advanced accounts receivable, collections, and client retention services available. To learn more about us, visit our website and follow us on Facebook and Twitter.

There’s nothing more valuable than knowing the full picture. You expect transparency in your personal relationships, in your business deals and your finances. Look, if your childcare facility told you they wouldn’t inform you what was happening with your children while under their care, you’d probably lose it. If your bank explained they couldn’t give you access to view your accounts, you’d most likely stop doing business with them. You just want to know what’s going on!

Think about this in context with A/R Management. If you are using a third party source for recapturing your outstanding balances, you might be tolerating a whole lot of subterfuge that just isn’t necessary.

Answer these questions to see where your collections company falls:

• Do you understand the schedule of contacts that your collections company is sending on your behalf?
  
• Are they really showing you every action they take on your accounts, or could they be skipping some of the steps they’ve promised – statements, letters and calls?
  
• Have you seen and approved the appearance and content of your letters and statements?
  
•  Are you aware of the approach your company takes when they speak on the phone with your customers – do they begin soft and then progress as pursuit continues?
  
• Do you have access to track account progress online?
  
•  Are accounts updated with the latest activity in a timely (and viewable) manner?
  
• Does your company allow your debtors to pay you directly?
  

If you answered ‘No’ to any of these questions, you might be experiencing a transparency problem with your A/R management. You want to look for a company that can do more than verbally reassure you of the above points – make sure your company can show you how it’s done.

TekCollect provides the most advanced accounts receivable, collections, and client retention services available. To learn more about us, visit our website and follow us on Facebook and Twitter.

At TekCollect, the first quarter is one of the busiest times of the year. We begin in January with a good deal of training, new clients and initiatives, while also ramping up for tax season through March and early April. Our corporate team is fully dedicated to streamlining solutions for our clients and sales teams, while our A/R management specialists work incredibly hard to recuperate as much for our clients as possible.

To show our appreciation for all the hard work the entire staff has put in so far this year, TekCollect hosted an Employee Appreciation outing for staff and their loved ones at Huntington Park for a Columbus Clippers baseball game.

It was a great night to be out! The stadium was full, the weather was balmy, and TekCollect team members were in good spirits, sitting together in section three of the park.

The Clippers, who were in the midst of a series with the Pawtucket Red Sox, started off slow with a relatively uneventful first couple of innings, but pulled out all the stops in overtime to win the game 3-2.

We want to thank staff members who joined us for the game on Saturday. We appreciate you all throughout the year, and hope that small gestures, like a night out at a baseball game, allow us to express our thanks for the hard work everyone at TekCollect does.

You are in business to help people. Whether it’s taking care of a family’s health, their recycling, their finances or even their heating/cooling - your company exists to form lasting customer relationships. But you are also in business to make money. You may be the owner or a trusted employee, but your transactions with your customers need to generate revenue and provide an income in order to be sustainable.

So then there’s the A/R situation – if you are like 99% of businesses in America, you have issues from time to time with customers who are slow to pay or refuse to pay. You need to bring that money in for your business to operate, but hounding those customers could cause all sorts of problems: they could complain, feel alienated or punished, tell their friends about their ‘bad experience’, and possibly still be unwilling to pay.

How are you dealing with this? Are you giving them plenty of time to pay, hoping they’ll come around? Did you hire an agency to go after them, risking your relationship and forfeiting 40% or more of what’s collected? What about attorney scare tactics? The thing is, these strategies are outdated – they represent the stigma that goes along with the idea of ‘collections’.

Let’s talk about early intervention.

What is it? It’s an A/R management philosophy that promotes proactive communication at the beginning and throughout the pay cycle. Instead of waiting for your customers to fall behind or become delinquent, you touch base with them right as the account reaches the cusp of becoming past due. Communication remains friendly and customer-oriented, and serves as more of a reminder rather than a scolding.

How does it work? Put yourself in your customer’s shoes. Have you ever been late to pay a bill? There was probably a reason behind it – you forgot, you lost the invoice, you may have been enduring a period of financial hardship. You, like your customers, probably had every intention of paying, but sometimes life gets in the way. Now, what if the company you owed provided you with approachable communication, payment options, or simply a listening ear to understand what happened? Much better than being chased and shamed!

Why use it? Ask yourself these questions:

·         Do you want to create positive cash flow within your business?

·         Do you want to do it without causing strain on your customer relationships?

·         Do you want a system that is proactive rather than reactive?

·         Do you want to see your customers respond, as well as return?

Does it take a slight shift in perspective? Yes – but think about it. Wouldn’t you rather extend the great experience your customer enjoys beyond their sales cycle and into the full life of your relationship? Think about how employing early intervention strategies could change the entire culture of your company – less worry about money coming in, less pressure on your staff to chase down delinquent accounts and have awkward discussions about lateness. It’s more than just a solution for you – it’s really an extension of the services you provide for them.

TekCollect provides the most advanced accounts receivable, collections, and client retention services available. To learn more about us, visit our website and follow us on Facebook and Twitter.

It’s convention season! The time of year when the spring thaw brings industries out of their home bases to network, learn and view the latest innovations at their disposal. From auto shows, to medical, to major utilities and retail brands – April and May seem to be filled with meetings of all sizes.

It’s a busy time of year for TekCollect, as well. It’s the tail end of tax season, which is one of the best times of year for you as clients. You can maximize your receivable recuperation opportunity from now until the 15th by placing accounts early and often, so we have a chance to make timely contact with your customers.

We also travel to conventions around the country. Our partnerships with trade associations give us the chance to get some face-to-face time with you while you’re attending your conferences. Whether you’re an existing client or someone who might be interested in creating better results for your A/R management, we are here to help! Since we have branches all over the country, chances are you’ll be seeing us at your industry convention this year. Some of the places you’ll definitely find us are The Hawaii Credit Union League’s 77th Annual Convention, The Annual Session of the Texas Dental Association, and the Ohio Society of CPA’s Annual Meeting and Business Excellence Symposium.

If you’re more into workshop-style learning, we’re speaking at some key expos this year, too. If you happen to attend one of our presentations, make sure and come say hello afterwards – answering your questions and learning more about your specific needs helps us better serve you. Our first big presentation of the year is at The National Propane Gas Alliance's Southeastern Convention and International Propane Expo.

Make sure to check our Facebook page often to see where in the country we’ll be during convention season, or feel free to contact us about this year’s schedule.

TekCollect provides the most advanced accounts receivable, collections, and client retention services available. To learn more about us, visit our website and follow us on Facebook and Twitter.

This past week, the major credit reporting agencies announced sweeping changes to the way they will be reporting and handling many aspects of their daily business. These changes are generally for the benefit of consumers, which is great for all of us personally, but how does it affect your accounts receivables and unpaid balances?

First of all, what are the basics to these changes? They revolve around the way bureaus handle disputes concerning unpaid bills, and will make it easier and faster to correct mistakes on a consumer’s credit report. It will also provide a longer window for medical charges to affect credit score, and will change what types of charges show up on a report. Overall, it gives customers some relief and expediency in the way their credit scores are handled, which can affect their ability to get a loan, a cell phone contract, or in some cases even a job.

Let’s look into this a little further:

·Disputes: In the past, if an alleged delinquency showed up on a customer report, the burden of proof fell to the customer, while the bureau was more likely to take cues from the creditor. Now, credit bureaus will be staffing up to better investigate disputes, and creditors will be held to more rigorous documentation standards.

·Medical Debt: Credit Reporting agencies will now be extending the waiting period for reporting medical delinquencies to 180 days. The extra time will allow for insurance companies to apply payments to the total bill, a process where delays often cause creditors to issue a credit hit prior to receiving insurance funding.

·Retroactive Medical: The bureaus have also agreed to expunge previously reported medical balances that have since been paid or will be paid by insurance, rather than allowing them to sit on a customer’s report for the standard 7 years.

·Charge Types on Reports: Items such as parking tickets or payday/check cashing loans will no longer show up on credit reports.

·Greater Transparency and Education: If a customer has a dispute, they will have access to more educational content and information about their case, and will be entitled to an additional free credit report upon completion of their dispute if a change in credit takes place.

·Timeline: Changes will begin to take effect over the next few months, with some of the more involved changes being implemented over the next year.

What does that mean for your business and your customer? It makes documentation and pursuit of unpaid income more important than ever. If your records are not fully in order, it’s time to take a ‘state of the union’ on your internal processes and make a plan in preparation for disputes as they arise.

If a customer feels less of a threat from taking a credit hit, they may be less likely to pay an outstanding balance without continuous prompting. You can rest easy if you are already a current client of TekCollect - you already experience industry-leading documentation, reporting, and effective pursuit as part of our standard services. We pride ourselves on exceeding the new credit bureau requirements, and are always looking ahead of the curve.

Article Sources: Los Angeles Times, Fox Business, Chicago Tribune

TekCollect provides the most advanced accounts receivable, collections, and client retention services available. To learn more about us, visit our website and follow us on Facebook and Twitter.

How is your business affected when a customer doesn’t pay? It may just start as an annoyance, sending out a letter or an extra phone call in your day. You may think, “It’s just common courtesy to pay your bills.” As more time passes, you realize your customer has no intention to pay despite your internal efforts. What are your options?

Continue Trying to Collect Internally:

• Pros: Perceived cost savings and staff knowing customers personally
  
• Cons: With strain on staff and customer rapport, your chances of recapturing receivables has very small rate of success and often result in all-out customer loss!
  

Attorney:

• Pros: An attorney-written letter can often scare the toughest of debtors into paying.
  
• Cons: It comes at a high up front cost, with alienation almost inevitable. Most corporate attorneys are not experts in collection law.
  

Contingency Agency:

• Pros: Time-tested tactics, often with a full team at your disposal.
  
• Cons: Rates between 33-50% per account collected, with a recovery rate of just over 15% on average.
  

Flat, Fixed Fee Philosophy:

• Pros: A low price, typically less than 10%, with non-alienating contacts and consistent professional follow through. This method promotes healthy A/R and customer retention, and boasts most of the pros from the other methods.
  
• Cons: None from our perspective :) 
  

We’re obviously a little biased as to what works best, but as experts, we’ve seen it all. There are definitely options for re-capturing that income, with advantages to each. The best way to make the choice for your business is to think about what pillars are important to you: Recovery, Cost, and Alienation. Don’t wait for the reality to set in on your outstanding accounts!

TekCollect provides the most advanced accounts receivable, collections, and client retention services available. To learn more about us, visit our website and follow us on Facebook and Twitter.

The first half of the year is when everyone is thinking healthy. Working out, eating better, being more active, and getting outside. We start the year as optimists! The same goes for your customer’s financial health. They want to start saving, spend more wisely and get out of debt.

Getting in your customer’s head is priority one for understanding how to best relate to them, both in getting them to buy into your product as well as getting them to pay for it! The customer’s openness for improvement at the beginning of the year is a good time to start setting some financial initiatives in motion that will improve both parties’ cash flow and relationship. Here’s some tips:

·         Start Sooner: Get in touch with your customers before their bills go overdue, with a friendly reminder of their obligation. This helps both of you stay on top of your finances.

·         Change Your Mindset: Don’t think of your slow-pay clients as debtors. They are your customers first! Give yourself some space and perspective from the anger your cash flow issues may be causing.

·         Give Options: Approaching your customers with payment options may relieve a great amount of stress in some cases. Remember, most of your customers do want to pay, but lack the mode to do so. Providing a roadmap for honoring their financial commitment to you can be the catalyst to jumpstarting payment today.

·         Separate Yourself: Is it weird servicing the customer with one breath, and then reminding them of their debt in the next? It’s weird for them, too. That’s why third party services like TekCollect are a great resource. By removing yourself from the equation and letting your customer work things out with TekCollect, it actually removes the awkwardness altogether. They can retain their feelings of privacy and self-respect by working with our solutions-focused team, while keeping your connection free and clear.

You are a member of a business that provides goods and services, but you are also a consumer in your everyday life. Think of how you would want to be approached for your own financial obligations. Think of how much value you’d perceive if you were given a chance to better your personal financial health by the businesses you deal with. That is how TekCollect can become a trusted partner in your accounts receivable management, by providing solutions and preserving customer goodwill that will extend far beyond the burn-off of New Year’s resolutions.

TekCollect provides the most advanced accounts receivable, collections, and client retention services available. To learn more about us, visit our website and follow us on Facebook and Twitter.

According to ITR Economics’ recent 2015 forecasting study, one of the top challenges that managers and business owners will face this year is the hiring and retention of talented, quality staff. With looming labor shortages in several industries, there is greater focus on keeping your employees aimed on the major areas where your business – and their skills – lie.  The investment of your staff’s time is more valuable than ever. When their time is diverted from their main function, it can mean slower results, lower profits, and drops in morale. These danger zones can add up to huge losses not only in productivity, but also in quality staff!

When it comes to collections, we know why it happens. You want to save money. You don’t want the majority of those slow pay accounts to be eaten up in agency fees. Just get the staff on it, right? They spend a little time on it each day, get the money back, no problem! –Actually, this is a big problem in the making. Consider these two perspectives on collections:

Internal Man Hours:

• Training: Your staff are experts in their area of focus, but asking them to step into a collections role is a highly specialized, highly regulated field. The training alone your staff needs just to avoid a lawsuit is significant.
• Alienation: Putting your team in the position of collecting AND servicing the customer is a dangerous line to tow. Blurring that line could cause irrevocable damage to an already tenuous relationship.
• Time = Money: Taking employees out of their professional rhythm is a literal drain on profits. They can become distracted or overwhelmed by the additional tasks, and not only are they less effective in retrieving those unpaid funds, they are not working toward their main duties for your company! 
  

External Man Power:

• Expertise: Third party collections is an art and a science! Knowing the ins and outs of the law, as well as the industry-leading methods for guaranteed results is our calling.
  
• Customer Service: The ultimate goal is to collect the money AND keep the client. That’s why separation between your staff and the client, as well as enlisting a third party with non-alienation expertise, is such a successful formula.
  
• Cost Savings: Our unique approach to collections allows us to charge a fixed fee, typically less than 10%. This allows you to leave the accounts receivable management to the experts while resting easy on the total investment.
  

It’s amazing what you can accomplish when your business is economically able to focus on its primary objectives, while having the peace of mind knowing that your slow pay accounts are being handled. Consider the results that External Man Power can add to your company this year.

TekCollect provides the most advanced accounts receivable, collections, and client retention services available. To learn more about us, visit our website and follow us on Facebook and Twitter.