It’s worth the effort to chase down those payment incentives customers helped themselves to — even though they shouldn’t have.
Take a moment to check in with your A/R staffers to see how much time and effort they’re putting into collecting unearned discounts.
The effort level may not be as much as it could — or should — be. A mere 18% of companies say they “very aggressively” pursue those dollars.
Remind your people it’s well worth bumping this task high up on their priority lists.
In tight times, many customers will pay late and still take a prompt- or even early-pay discount, hoping you won’t bother to charge them back.
But at 2% or even 5% a pop, you could be letting a lot of money slip through the cracks.
The encouraging news? When customers are challenged, the majority tend to back down and return the money they weren’t entitled to. So encourage staffers to be extra vigilant about double-checking that any discounts taken were indeed earned.
And whether it takes an additional invoice or an extra phone call, encourage staffers to do what it takes to reclaim what’s yours.