You and your cash flow rely completely on your accounts receivable team. This is a huge responsibility, and one that should be taken seriously. To get the best results, AR professionals must have immense insight and the ability to handle situations with care as an essential part of your CRM team. If you’re an SMB, it is particularly important that your AR team is properly informed so that there are no compliance lapses that could put your business in much more danger than just a few late payments can cause.
So, hiring the right people for your AR and training team is important. Here are four must-haves for finding and nurturing your AR professionals.
Respect
First and foremost, your new AR professional should be able to show your customers the utmost respect. It is such an important quality that an unskilled AR person was what inspired us to create TrueAccord. Aggressive, rude bill collectors may get the job done, but afterwards you’ve probably lost that customer, plus anyone the customer may talk to. Retaining customers who don’t pay on time can be more economically advantageous than aggressively pursuing a bill.
AR isn’t all about getting payments. Your AR people are also in a position to uncover helpful customer insights. These insights can be used to make your brand better, drawing in more customers. So, having an AR team that can have a rapport with your clients not only increases your customer satisfaction rates, but can also increase your bottom line.
Knowledge of Applicable Laws
AR professionals can’t go it alone. They should have ongoing legal counsel to ensure that they are compliant with current collection laws. Access to and supervision from lawyers will ensure that your AR person does not derail individual payments or expose your company to debilitating fines. According to collection laws, simple things like calling customers at the wrong time of day can cause havoc with your payments.
Getting It Right
AR professionals should also acquire techniques for making payments more likely to be paid. For example, Thursdays and Fridays are the best days to contact a customer to grab and keep their attention. Also, email has a surprisingly lower open and response rate than direct mail. Training these techniques is vital to your team’s effectiveness.
AR Drives Your Business’ Spirit
The best AR employees want to make your business better in all areas. They will aim to help with your overall goals and fundamental business principles. They will think of themselves as brand ambassadors from the very beginning, no matter if they are sending out invoices or making a collection. When hiring, you always want to be sure that prospects understand your vision.
Check out our short e-book for more information on this topic.
Get Help
Even when you have the best AR team, sometimes a situation can be too big for them to handle by themselves. In these cases, it is smart to get help from an experienced collection company, like TrueAccord, that specializes in advanced methods of debt collecting and that uses proven methods to resolve non-payment issues. Getting help not only helps you recover payments, but also saves SMBs valuable time.