Every CEO’s worst fear: the deterioration of customer relations due to non-payment or late payment. It’s a complex balancing act, with an understanding but not lax approach to customer relations turning you into a financial and commercial tightrope walker. So how do you ensure a good relationship with your customers AND your payments?
Customer care, a key stage
Trade receivables monitoring plays a key role in risk prevention. It provides you and your customers with the agility they need to prepare for financial transactions. Throughout the entire commercial relationship with the customer, known as the order-to-cash cycle, monitoring is essential. For example, when a customer requests an increase in an outstanding amount, follow-up and your commercial relationship ensure transparency in your exchanges. Your customer can then tell you why, and whether he’ll be able to pay his invoices on time. In theory, follow-up seems obvious and in osmosis with a commercial relationship, but in practice the sheer volume of information to be processed hampers this close relationship. Overburdened by data from all financial processes, your company’s accounting departments can no longer keep track of every customer item.
Follow-up options, a multitude of piloting options
As a result, implementing risk prevention solutions saves your financial departments a considerable amount of time. Alert systems for overdrafts, deteriorating behavior and payment deadlines point out weaknesses in customer receivables for you. Depending on the evolution of the risk, it is then up to the financial department to adjust the level of outstandings granted to customers upwards or downwards. Financiers can also adapt payment terms and conditions. Conversely, if the risk of late payment or non-payment deteriorates, the credit manager has a number of recourses. He can demand cash payment or a deposit for all new orders, or give preference to payment by direct draft rather than by due date draft, bank transfer or cheque. Blocking orders or deliveries awaiting payment is also justified as a solution for managing these financial exchanges.
The CashOnTime solution, a high-performance pilot tool
But how can you ensure effective, lasting follow-up with the right tools?
CashOnTime, our accounts receivable management software, meets your requirements and those of your customers, enabling you to enhance your customer relations and track your profits. “CashOnTime’s integration of elements from our CRM, as well as scoring, enables you to communicate with and manage your network. Dunning strategies take these risk factors into account, enabling us to react more quickly,” explains Anita ARCHONTARAS, Credit Manager at DELTA SECURITY SOLUTIONS.
Obviously, the coherence of customer and financial management depends on their interaction. “Rituals with branches and divisions are built around CashOnTime indicators and dashboards. CashOnTime allows us to interact with our agencies in the handling of our disputes,” adds Anita ARCHONTARAS.
At the same time, CashOnTime is part of a Cash Culture 4.0 integrating artificial intelligence and human consideration. “Cash Culture is on the way, and includes the sales force too. This tool structures and solidifies our actions as well as our communication with our customers,” concludes Anita ARCHONTARAS.”
