Change is Constant – Credit Management need to evolve

#clientcentricity #creditmanagement #evolve #paymentsolution

Throughout our lives, we have and will continue to encounter change, personally, socially, and in business. Some changes are instant and other over time, but the fact remains, “The only constant thing in life is, change”. The question is, how do we experience, adopt, and adapt to change? Some might find it easier due to their level of resilience, whilst others find it difficult to change due to risk and uncertainty. The current global pandemic has certainly taken, no ripped everyone out of their comfort zones, and both consumers and businesses all need to adapt to INSTANT CHANGE – the obligation to instantly change in how you engage, communicate, transact, and survive in a fast and everchanging global environment. If you are not prepared to transform, change processes, enhance the way you engage with your customers, become more client-centric, and invest in digital platforms, your competitors will. As it stands now, your Days Sales Outstanding (DSO) is aging and it is not excluded from the obligation for change. This change will negatively impact your cash flow, customer relations, and growth if the change is not accepted and implemented. If the new changed way is not implemented from day one, you might find more accounts aged or aging to the 60 days plus bucket, known as the “tipping point” where the management and receipt of the monies due, becomes difficult. This calls for businesses to review their traditional credit management processes and evolve with the change, invest in new digital solutions that will assist them in adopting an in-touch, convenient platform for improved customer communication, payment solutions, and supporting sustainable business through improved cash flow. The solution is eColls™, the leader in innovative digital credit management solutions. We have developed a convenient easy-to-use platform adding additional value to your existing processes. “Time to change and reap the reward”

Customer Age Curve

Businesses need to be in-touch with their customers’ “Age Curve” and how eColls can be implemented to improve and ease their current account management process from day one. The customer age curve illustrates the transition process within the credit life cycle of a customer’s account from pre-vetting to debtor level, at which stage will require possible pre-legal collection or legal action. This should be avoided as much as possible, through an upfront robust credit management process. It is therefore important to at the beginning of your sales cycle known as the “Critical Point of Value” (CPV), to manage accounts effectively in the 1-30 days period post-sale. This can be achieved by having the resources, processes, and platforms in place to ensure you consistently engage with your customers, continuously vetting their accounts to avoid any unexpected surprises with customers reaching the tipping point. Once the tipping point is reached, the process to collect on the overdue accounts becomes difficult and costly, leading to bad debt provision. Something, no organization can afford in the current economic climate.

Client Centricity

We all know that customers are your biggest asset, but do they know it and are you treating them as an asset? Apart from the Sales/CRM department, who is traditionally responsible for growth, how often does your finance and marketing departments:

• engage with your entire customer base, not just your key clients
• make them feel valued and appreciated for doing business with you
• acknowledge their business and thank them for being loyal
• thank them for settling their account within the terms, not being just an account
• ask customers how you can improve the customer experience
• review customer portfolios to identify risks, opportunities, or where more value can be added

Organizations need to understand the importance of keeping or putting their customers back in the center of their business and not just use it as a slogan. Thumbs up to those organizations putting the deed to the word! Client engagement needs to be taken to a new level, the whole organization working in unity with a common goal to ensure customers feel wanted, valued, and stay loyal towards your organization. Yes, it will be difficult for some, but all the departments must understand the value they add, or need to add, to internal and external stakeholders to achieve a great customer experience. If excellent inter-departmental service delivery is achieved the customer experience will naturally increase. This leads to increased customer satisfaction and in return, their loyalty towards your organization. This process starts with the initial contact: the vetting stage. Use a reputable consumer or commercial bureau that provides an online credit vetting application allowing organizations to approve or decline applications within minutes. This creates transparency that customers appreciate and value. This should not just illustrate your effectiveness during the onboarding stage, but also be followed up with excellent sales, and account management processes throughout the entire customer journey to ensure you retain the current customer base, whilst ensuring growth and healthy consistent cash flow. This will require a paradigm shift, but do-able. Making this journey easier, the following digital starting points.

“In-Touch” Communication

As mentioned earlier, businesses and consumers have changed the way they engage and communicate, less voice, and more digital. It is evident that more individuals are doing business using digital applications due to the convenience of access and sharing of information, anywhere, anytime. Having a digital communication platform e.g: WhatsApp to communicate with your customers on-the-go, puts you a step ahead of the rest, more so providing the customer with access to their current account balance and or history of previous transactions and addressing queries based on a ticketing system. The ticketing system ensures all interactions are well managed, with agents attending to customer engagements. This ensures no customer engagement on this platform goes unattended, all customers receive the required feedback. This improved, in-touch engagement approach does not only put your customer in the center of your business, but it also allows for growth opportunities through scheduled campaigns used by your marketing and sales departments to promote new products and or client benefits, whilst reviewing their account balances

Convenient Payment Solutions

The importance of having a platform with a one-stop suite of payment options is a must in the fast-paced world, where customers require, easy and convenient ways of making payments without leaving the comfort of their own homes or having options available at the finger tips., Therefore organizations need to be cognizant of their customer base and demographic location to provide all customers ease of payment. The organization should provide payment options best suited and convenient for their customer base., Options that include real-time payments, debit, and credit card, and instant EFT to the more traditional payment options, EFT, Debit Order, and Pay@

eColls™ can provide your customer base with these solutions:

Using eColls™ does not only provide your customers with payment options, but it also links them to a communication platform. Customers can chat with, and pay the organization on-the-go. Customers can also update their profile providing you with updated contact details, supporting your communication strategies.

All at the ease of customers using their mobile device, connecting data free, to a secure link.

eColls™ creates a culture of payment and establishes customer loyalty by making it easier for the customers to interact and transact, meeting their obligations towards organizations before reaching the “tipping point”.

Rewarding paying customers

When last did you thank your customer for making a payment? Yes, they have purchased and need to make a payment, but what about showing appreciation for the value they add to your business. Showing appreciation towards customers for their continued loyalty by instantly rewarding customers for making a payment, an organization can drastically increase customer satisfaction., Rewarding your is not just bound to a thank you for signing up email. Customers should be rewarded for payment every month, irrespective of industry. Once the customer has made a payment using any of eColls™ payment options, they will receive instant notification of what they qualify for. Customers then use their reference numbers to redeem their reward. eColls™ has created a customer-centric approach and convenient payment solutions, to create a culture of payment, assisting organizations to retain their customer base whilst growing their business that will lead to sustainable healthy cashflow.

eColls is your digital in-touch, convenient, easy to use credit management and customer-centric business partner!

Step 1: Review your current process and make a conscious decision to improve customer convenience by including a value-added digital solution to your current processes. Step 2: Request an eColls™ demo at sales@ecolls.tech or info@ecolls.tech to experience the ease of use and benefits of having eColls™ part of your team Step 3: Sign up with eColls™, welcome on-board. Step 4: Never look back!