The Analysis Comment
Putting the human being back into credit decisions
Often, the best time to really get to know your customer is before there is a problem
Ian Strangward Customer finance manager, Karndean Designflooring
ian.strangward@
karndean.co.uk
Leaving school at the tender age of 16, I did as my dad told me and got a ‘proper job’, working for NatWest Bank. The world of banking was a very different
place in the mid-1980s. Younger readers may not believe this, but alongside other various roles that have disappeared over the years, there was an actual bank manager at every branch! If you wanted a loan, overdraft – or just a chat about
life, the universe and
everything – you went to see your local bank manager, who was more than a lender: he was your best mate – providing of course you stuck to the agreement you made!
Today’s world How different the world of banking is today, and so is the world of commercial credit. Before the dawn of the internet, your
typical credit manager would rely upon information that was either gathered from other suppliers, such as trade reference request, telephone calls to colleagues in the industry or credit circle meeting, or upon accounts from Companies House – oh those dreaded microfiche requests! – or, alternatively, you would rely upon customer visits and conversations, alongside the occasional manual credit report from a specialist agency who charged a fortune for the service. Decisions around credit were made in a similar way to your friendly
I
bosses that the nine or 10 customers that I visit result in me having a more positive view of
colleagues and my credit
business, which is good for my commercial team in terms of growing sales
bank manager: information to hand with a huge slice of personal judgement mixed in.
12 the often tell It is easy to forget that the world of credit
was built on the principle of trust, not credit scorecards, credit reference agency reports, or any other automated system.
Knowing your customer Of course, the tools provided by the reference agencies are vital to today’s busy credit manager, but how do we ensure we keep the human element in ‘knowing your customer’? I often tell credit colleagues and my
bosses that the nine or 10 customers that I visit result in me having a more positive view of the business, which is good for my commercial team in terms of growing sales. As for the other one in 10 that I do not feel so good about: well, that is good for the business too, in a very different way! So do you only visit a customer if there
is an issue to resolve? The best time to see a customer is when there is no problem – the chances of getting them to open up is greatly improved! Putting faces to names and colouring in
the black and white (report and scorecard- driven) image that you have of the business is an important element of delivering a high quality credit-management service. As we hurtle towards 2018, how about a
New Year’s resolution to go and see more customers next year?
It is likely to be a challenging year for the commercial credit
manager, but your time out of the office could make all the difference for your business. CCR
www.CCRMagazine.co.uk December 2017
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52
