This blog outlines the three key benefits of automated credit control, based on the experience of Chaser credit control software users - and aims to help you decide if automation is right for your business.
We’ll go into detail shortly - but in summary, this is what you can expect from automating your credit control:
- Better relationships with customers
- More time to focus on what matters
- Improved cash flow
Automation may be a daunting concept for businesses that haven’t implemented it before, and may raise a few eyebrows with some employees fearful of losing their jobs to automation!
In fact, thousands of small-medium businesses using Chaser have found automating their credit control easy - businesses have even been set up and chasing customers with setup times as fast as 5 minutes! In addition, users have seen near-instant impacts, for example TaxAssist who got £20k worth of debt paid in just 30 minutes.
Automated credit control can work independently, or can support in-house credit controllers - see who uses automated credit control below:
- Company founders, owners and sole traders use Chaser so they can focus more time on growing their business
- Finance teams use Chaser to manage the business’s credit control, help streamline their processes, and save time within the team
- Credit controllers use Chaser to automate the repetitive parts of their role, so they can focus more time on taking care of high-value customers, planning and reporting, and chasing over the phone
Better relationships with customers, more time to focus on what matters, and improved cash flow... Just some of the many benefits credit control automation can have for your business!
1. Better relationships with customers
Despite automating your credit control, every invoice reminder you send to customers still looks hand-typed - only without the mistakes!
Don't lose the personal touch
Unlimited, editable email templates can be adapted to your business’ usual communication style, with placeholders for customer-specific data and email addresses and signatures that reflect the normal sender.
No more mistakes
Often over-worked, or muddled by mundane, repetitive email chasing, even the world’s best credit controller can still make mistakes chasing customers. For instance, chasing the wrong customers, typos, and forgetting to attach invoice copies and customer statements are all common credit control mishaps.
Luckily, these common mistakes can be avoided by automating. Automated credit control makes sure you’re always chasing the right customers with the right messages (no typos!) and lets you automatically attach invoice copies and customer statements to all your reminders. So your customer has everything they need to make payment as soon as that reminder hits their inbox.
Always say thanks for paying
Automated credit control means customers always receive a personalised thanks for paying message when invoices are paid, helping you maintain great relationships with customers! Whilst it’s easily forgotten, we’ve found this significantly improves future payment times.
2. More time to focus on what matters
Credit control automation users like Rossanna at Love Brands are able to save over 15 hours every week on accounts receivables management.
Don’t waste time manually chasing
With automated credit control, chasing schedules and timing settings make sure customers are always automatically chased at the right time. This lets your credit controller, finance team members - or whoever’s doing credit control avoid mundane manual chasing week-to-week, giving them more time to focus on what matters.
Furthermore, you can reach your customers by both email and SMS payment reminders using credit control automation. Contacting customers via multiple channels ensures your reminders have the best chance of reaching customers, and increase your chances of prompt payment.
Always chase accurately
Avoid any awkward chasing situations. Timing settings mean you control when automated reminders are sent out, aligning this with when you do your bank reconciliation means customers are never chased incorrectly.
Have full visibility over your credit control
Automated credit control consolidates all of your communications with customers in a CRM, tracking email opens and responses - saving your finance team or your credit controller time piecing together the conversation! Learn about the importance of tracking your accounts receivables accurately.
3. Improved cash flow
Chaser knows that polite persistence is what gets invoices paid. Manually, being polite and staying persistent can be time-consuming. But automated credit control makes this easy. Chaser has seen 80% of overdue invoices are successfully paid by email chasing alone.
Taking a proactive approach certainly pays, as The 2022 late payment report shows businesses who follow up with 90% of more of their invoices every month are the most likely to be paid before their invoice due date.
Automating your credit control means more reliable payments from your customers, making it easier for you to cover costs and pay suppliers and manage your cash flow effectively.
What next?
Chaser is the market leader in automated credit control, and helps thousands of businesses to reduce late payments and improve cash flow. Chaser helps businesses to collect over $5 billion every year in payments, whilst championing a friendly and human approach in credit control automation.
From supporting businesses in reducing late payments since 2014, we’ve built up some best practice knowledge to help business with their credit control. You can download Chaser's 40 polite templates to get invoices paid, the What to do when customers aren't paying guide, or view more guides in the Resource centre.
If your business is ready to reduce late payments in an efficient and friendly way, try out automating your credit control with Chaser for free for 14 days (no card details required) or speak to an expert.
