UT Informal Class - Collecting the $ That You Are Owed

My Winter class with UT Informal classes will be Tuesday, February 3, 2009, 6-9pm and the topic is "Collecting the Money that You Are Owed". The class is targeted at the people responsible for collecting Accounts Receivable at the companies and medical practices where they work. We start at the credit or patient form all the way thru filing suit or placeing an account with a collection agency. The course is in the print catalog that is currently on the streets or at the following link.

https://informalclasses.org/index2.html

Click on view courses, click on "Agree" and enter Activity# 5806.601

Most attendees come away picking up a couple of ideas that not only help them collect more money for their company but makes the job a little more enjoyable. If you have any questions about the course or suggestions for topics covered, by all means contact me.
I look forward to seeing you.

Christmas is sooner than you think

Christmas is a wonderful time for families, not so good for businesses. Why? Unless you are in the retail business, the consumer's bill can take a back seat to paying the debt that you are owed.

Everyone wants Christmas to be a great holiday for their families and others. The folks that owe you money want to provide an enjoyable Christmas for their families and rightfully so, everyone wants to make this Christmas the best ever. To accomplish that, they tell themselves that they will pay your bill in January, right after the holidays. January comes and other bills become more important and they tell themselves that they will pay your bill with their income tax refund.

See where this is going?

The strategy that will help you keep the cash flow coming in through January and beyond? Get permission to run checks by phone of debit/credit card payments on a pre-arranged schedule.

Contact me for more detailed information on how to set these plans up, you'll have a happier new year for it!

UT Informal Class on helping you collect your money

I will be teaching a 3 hour class at UT Informal Classes, "Collecting Money You Are Owed" on Tuesday, September 23rd, 6 to 9pm.

If you work in an office or own a business and have customers that owe you money, this course will possibly help you collect more of the money that you are owed.

You can reach the UT Informal Classes online at:

https://informalclasses.org/index2.html

Click on: view courses on the left side options

enter activity# 5806.301

UT charges the following for the course: Resident: $31.00Non-resident: $36.00

I have taught the course for several years and all previous participants have come away with at least one good idea for increasing their collections. Usually those ideas come from others in the class and that's the way it should be, come share your successes and failures we will all learn!

The US Post Office has an unusual room at each location

Have you ever had a customer promise to send a payment on their past due bill with you, say in the amount of $500 and when it arrives in the mail it is $100?
Unfortunately for you, the envelope went thru the "incredible shrinking room" that exists in each post office. Any form of payment that enters comes out denominated in a smaller dollar amount than when it went in. Fortunately, it didn't go into the "lost in the mail" room where the payments never seem to make it out to you in spite of the customer's assertions that it was mailed and now it is your problem.

Hesitant to turn accounts over for collection?

It can be hard and costly to get new customers, clients or patients. Everything that you read says that it is always cheaper to keep existing customers, clients or patients than getting new ones.

While this is true, do you really want to keep those that are not paying you? It is easy to be optomistic about collecting the money that you are owed, sure some will pay and it's a fine line between handling your accounts receivable in a sensitive way so that you keep your customers and avoid alienating them in the process.

Human nature being what it is, your customers that are past due will do one of three things, two of which are BAD. Ideally, you will get paid, that's the GOOD. However, if someone owes you money they may feel bad about it and will quit using your services to avoid dealing with their past due bill or worry that you will refuse to deal with them, that's BAD. Once they have left you, they then have no incentive at all to pay your bill in a timely manner, they are now buying from someone else. That's BAD.

The best way to deal with this is to have a firm credit policy in place, that is have a process in place to collect the money, set a time limit to place an account for collection and STICK TO IT.

Telephone Tip

When you’re on the phone with someone regarding payment of a bill they owe you, stay on the phone until you are clear about what happens next.
Will they be:
· Paying all or part of your bill?
· Mailing, wiring or bringing it to your office? When, exactly?
· Calling you back, if so, by what deadline?
Be wary when you hear “try,” “do my best,” “think I can,” “should be able to,” or anything along those lines.
Don’t hesitate to pull the plug on an account you can’t collect after 120 days. We spend each day on focusing on collecting your money so that you can do what you do best.

Income Tax Refund Season

This is a good time of the year to give your consumers and patients a little extra time to get their income tax refunds to pay you the money that that they owe you. However, keep in mind that although they may promise to pay you when they get their tax refund, when that money hits their bank account or the check arrives, their priorities change and they may decide to reward themselves with "their money" by spending it on themselves instead of keeping their promise to you.
For that reason, it's a good idea to ask when they filed the return and to insist upon a good faith payment of 10% now in exchange for the extension. That helps solidify the committment in their minds and gets you some immediate money on the account.

what happened today

this is a test of my blog, stay tuned, I will be posting periodically, mostly stories from the collection floor and how they might help you collect the money that is owed to you by your customers or patients.