In Focus Commercial Credit
Left-right: Alan Brown; Alison Bennett; David Lynch; Gary Pond
What are the biggest challenges and opportunities facing the industry in getting paid at the moment? AV: Investment is a major issue – many companies may not see credit as being as important as it should be. Investment in your team is vital, because
if you have the right people in the right role with the right training, then you will have the ability to deal with issues. With those issues, you learn from those experiences. So what are the major issues in getting paid? Well, it is a matter of experience. Why do people not pay you? It is experience. Credit being a side-section to finance means that it is at the times when the Finance department wants to get some money in that credit gets noticed. So the answer of the biggest challenge is
industry is simply investment in the right team and the right tools. In my experience, it has all been trial and error: as you come across an issue, what I do with my team is sit down once a week, share the findings of the week, and find out how we overcome those next time when someone else has the same experience. The credit department is protecting the
business’s biggest asset, but the importance of the credit function is not the same in boom times as it is in recessions.
AB: There is another important concept here, and that is engagement; we need engagement with the business both ways. There is no point in the business going out and doing things without passing them past credit, and in credit not understanding what the business’s needs are. That is a really important thing if we
want to get over the peaks and troughs in terms of interest that the wider business
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In my experience, it has all been trial and error: as you come across an issue, what I do with my team is sit down once a week, share the findings of the week, and find out how we overcome those next time when someone else has the same experience
shows in credit. You also need to adjust your style to match the needs of the times.
RW:We refer a lot of work to High Court enforcement agents (HCEO) and technology has helped us a great deal to collect. We are able to access online portals at any stage for updates on matters and maintain contact with HCEO. They are prepared to adapt to our needs and help streamline our processes. For example, we are able to tailor the types of e-mail correspondence and automated updates we receive (or do not) at various stages of the enforcement process. This can reduce time having to be spent
manually processing such correspondence. But on the flip side, technology is also driving other behaviour. Social media for example, which is huge. We recently experienced a customer
who, having failed to respond to all correspondence inviting engagement, posted on a social media group. His post referred to our client by name and
his comments included a statement that he was vulnerable. Our clients will always consider the individual circumstances of
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customers, although sometimes vulnerability is not proven. It is an unfortunate fact, however, that
negative social media can be used to try to change a creditor’s approach. Technology is very much a double-edged sword.
LW: The more we move into technology, it still seems to be the case that it is the human voice that can break down barriers and really move mountains. We all have customers hiding behind wanting their statements to be delivered by e-mail, but they can ignore these e-mails, and it is only when we call them that they know that something is going to happen. We can use and embrace all the technology that will make things speedy: it is the numbers game: get as much out automated as you can, but what really counts is the calling.
RW: People do not seem to pick up the telephone enough nowadays in order to have a proper conversation. More often than not email is used for this purpose, even though it takes more time. Everyone, today, is pushed and mindful of budgets. But, as the saying goes ‘Time is money’ and excessive time spent looking at e-mails can be far less efficient, when more can be dis- cussed (and achieved) in less time over the telephone.
LW: I have different offices with teams in each, and I have made it clear that my means of communications is the telephone; I am not got to sit and bash out an e-mail, but I get the answer ‘oh, but I have to put my headset on’! Well, needless to say they will now pick
up the telephone because I can deal with things 10 times quicker.
March 2020
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