Receivables Control's solutions go beyond traditional agency services.  The General Auditing Bureau provides pre-collection services designed to hold collection costs in check while the Professional Services Group provides an array of services including outsourcing, portfolio liquidations, portfolio purchases, and education. 

Back to Basics!

Mike Zwach is the Executive Vice President and General Manager of Receivables Control. You can contact Mike at 763 315 9697 or email him at mzwach@rccmn.com.

Preventing 3rd Party Placements & Improving Customer Service

Jim Fritz  

Does it seem counterintuitive that a third party collection agency sales person would talk about preventing clients from placing accounts for collections?  This is just one of those areas where Receivables Control is unique.  We believe we'll have happier clients if we help clients reduce placements through more effective internal practices.  We have yet to find a client that isn't interested in reducing their placements and their bad debt expense.  

Do you want to reduce placements and resolve more accounts in house? 

• Set Deadlines:  Customers respond to deadlines.  Open ended payment arrangements are an invitation for high delinquency.  Collectors create urgency through deadlines.  Effective collectors are creative.  Consider this simple example:  early in a month a passive collector may allow a customer to promise payment for the end of the month.  However, an assertive collector can get an immediate payment by telling the customer, "I know you would like to pay at the end of the month; however, we have a Friday review of accounts over 60 days and yours is up this week.  I don't want your account to go to collections".  Give me the creative, assertive collector; they win every time!  Setting deadlines works.

• Timely Follow Up:  Whether it is following up on a broken promise or following up on a resolution to a dispute, make sure your collectors use short follow up times.  Follow up communication is most effective when it coincides immediately with a broken promise.  If your collectors are lax in follow up they are training your customers to pay slowly and on the customer terms, not yours.  Timely follow up applies to both internal and external customers!

• Avoid Lengthy Research Projects:  When is the last time you reviewed your dispute resolution process?  Review your resolution process and shorten your internal response times at every step.  Cut your process by weeks, days, or hours and see your collection and resolution rates increase!  It will help you collect money faster, improve customer service, and you won't have to look at a cluttered aging, month after month. 

I can sum it up in a word, urgency.  Urgency will help you collect cash more quickly and it will help you solve problems without having to watch them age to oblivion.

Jim Fritz is the Vice President of Sales for Receivables Control.  Jim can be reached at 763 315 9631 and his email is jfritz@rccmn.com.

We all have technology and tools to help us with just about everything in life.  When it comes to credit decisions, even though there are tools that can help us, good credit decisions are still the result of making an assessment of a situation with limited information and a short amount of time.  You may recall the 5 C's of Credit from your credit management training.        

Capacity:  Does my customer have the ability to generate enough cash flow to run their business and repay me for products/services I sold them?  Don't get caught up in appearances.  Just because the owner drives a flashy car or lives in a pricey home doesn't mean they have the capacity to repay you.  Check their financials whenever possible.

Conditions:  What are the economic conditions surrounding my customer and his/her business model?  Are they in an industry that is doing well or are they in an industry that is under duress?  What's their niche within their industry and are they poised to do well in the future?  Even though home builders appeared to be doing well in 2007, in 2008 too many creditors found out how much risk they had in their portfolios. 

Collateral:  Is it possible for me to gain collateral as a result of my transaction with my customer?  Let's face it: with most B2B transactions, you are selling on net terms.  Taking a security interest in the goods isn't practical.  In fact, it could cause a revolt in your sales department.   Instead, you may require that your customer  sign a guaranty.  It's not the same thing as collateral, but it could give you more leverage over another creditor should the company default. 

Credit:  Look at the D&B, Experian, or even a consumer credit report.  How do they they pay other vendors?  If this is a new customer, do they have references you can check?  Are they a former customer for which you may already have history?  Past performance is generally an indicator of future results!

Character:  What kind of reputation does the customer have?  Make sure you separate fact from fiction.  Are there suits and judgments in the customer's history?  Do creditors need to sue to get paid?  If your potential customer has a poor reputation, then perhaps you'll be better off selling cash in advance.

It's easy to imagine a minefield when making credit decisions.  At every turn there are risks.  We never have all the facts.  If credit people had access to all the facts we would all be replaced with computer programs.  The truth is, it takes people to sort through commercial credit applications and arrive at sound decisions.  Don't be afraid to take risk, just calculate the risk you take.

Kelly Cronan is the Vice President of Collection Operations.  Kelly can be reached at 763 315 9660 and his email is kcronan@rccmn.com.

Receivables Control

Executive Team

Luke Vidor, Pres/ CEO

Quick Links

Jim Fritz, Jr. is celebrating 20 years of service with Receivables Control.

Jim joined the team after completing his degree at St. John's University.  Jim is our Vice President of Sales.

Congratulations Jim!

Trouble Overseas?

Our clients are often frustrated most by problems they have collecting foreign receivables.  

Let us help you collect your problem foreign accounts.  Whether its Austria or Zambia, Saudi Arabia or Shanghai, Mexico City or Moscow,  Pakistan or Peru, we have you covered in these locales and all points in between!

Our global recoveries team collects millions of dollars for our clients.  Contact us to help you today! 

Receivables Control

7373 Kirkwood Ct,

Suite 200,

Maple Grove, MN 55369

763 315 9600

www.RCCmn.com