Reasons Why Your Business Should Be Using Commercial Collection Agencies PDF Print E-mail
Written by David P. Montana   
Thursday, 09 July 2009 05:16
No matter what the size of your business is, positive cash flow is a crucial element, which means that collections should be one of your top priorities. At the same time, collections is a process that makes a lot of people uneasy, meaning that they sometimes procrastinate on doing it in favor of other, more pleasant duties. For many businesses, employing commercial collection agencies is the answer.
by DavidP.Montana


No matter what the size of your business is, positive cash flow is a crucial element, which means that collections should be one of your top priorities. At the same time, collections is a process that makes a lot of people uneasy, meaning that they sometimes procrastinate on doing it in favor of other, more pleasant duties. For many businesses, employing commercial collection agencies is the answer.

First of all, phone calls from commercial collection agencies are often enough to get a slow-paying client to send a check. Existing clients may take advantage of their good relationship with you and drag their feet as long as possible, hoping to trade on your goodwill. Calling in a professional debt collector shows them you mean business.

Secondly, people who work for commercial collection agencies do this job and this job only for a living. They know how to push your clients' buttons in order to get them to pay, and they're very persistent. In contrast, an in-house collections person may put off collections calls because they're unpleasant, be content with leaving a message on voice mail or be susceptible to your clients' excuses.

Commercial collection agencies are also cognizant of the laws governing debt collection and will keep their behavior within the bounds of what is allowed. Using methods that are against the law can cause you to be fined and will jeopardize your collection efforts. While this may be a remote possibility, it's far better to have a professional handle the job rather than risk losing everything due to an amateurish mistake.

To this end, it helps to interview current clients of commercial collection agencies to find out how satisfied they are with the vendor's services. If the agency can point you to clients who have used their services for years it's a very good sign, especially if they're in industries that are aligned with yours.

Commercial collection agencies in most cases are not paid until they collect; at that point they receive a percentage of the recovery. In this way, they can actually be cheaper than using in-house collections, because an employee doing collections is taking time away from other work that he or she could be doing.

Commercial collection agencies are more effective at the collections process because they've seen and heard it all. They know how to recognize the patterns of debt avoidance, and don't allow clients to emotionally manipulate them, which can be a problem if you're handling collections yourself.

Commercial collection agencies know how to get the evasive person on the phone and get them to commit verbally to making a payment. Once clients have made a promise to pay they are a lot more likely to follow through on it. Using commercial collection agencies is simply a superior way to handle slow payers for any business.

DISCLAIMER: This article is provided as information only and is not to be taken as financial advice.

Last Updated on Wednesday, 15 July 2009 12:11