Please remit payment: Following-up doesn’t hurt the customer experience
There is a myth in accounts receivable that “following up” means you’re being annoying or frustrating to your customer. That dunning letters or please remit payment messages are bothersome and could make your customer decide not to renew because of your accounting department.
Now, yes, if you sent an invoice out then an hour later sent another email that said, “Hey, did you get it? Did you get it?” and another one a few hours after that, absolutely that would be annoying and a bad customer experience. But that’s an extreme.
Too often we see companies go with the opposite extreme. They’ll hardly follow-up at all. They send out the invoice on Day 1 then wait 30 days to follow up. Wait for another 15–20 days before sending Email #3. Around Day 90, their fourth email goes out and it’s threatening to shut the service down or bring in a collections agency.
Why are the majority of follow-ups happening after the invoice is due?
What if this type of approach happened for something like a kid’s birthday party invitation. Your friend says, “Hey, my daughter is turning five at the end of the month. Your family is invited to our birthday party. Hope you can make it!”
You RSVP yes, but life gets busy. 35 days go by. You totally lose track of time. A new letter arrives in the mail. Hey, the birthday party happened last week, if you can, please still send over a gift.
Another month goes by. New note. Just a reminder, the birthday party was last month. It would be nice if you could send a late card or a gift. We’ve applied a small late fee.
Another month passes. The next message is more intense. Just letting you know we are shutting down our friendship since we haven’t heard back from you. A collections agency will be reaching out shortly in regard to the late gift.
If this approach seems absurd for a small birthday party invitation, why would we use it in business when thousands of dollars are on the line?
A more effective approach would be something like:
Day 1: Hey, the birthday is at the end of the month. (insert date, address, time, etc.)
Day 7: Hope you’re having a good week. I haven’t heard back yet on your RSVP, just wanted to follow-up, make sure you got the letter.
Day 15: Thanks for the RSVP! We have your family marked down for four people. If anything changes, please let us know.
Day 25: Looking forward to seeing you on Saturday. I’ve included our address here below.
People are busy. Your customer has other things on their calendar to get done — at work and outside of the office. They may have wanted to pay the invoice on time but got distracted. They were thinking about other things.
Like their kid’s upcoming birthday party.
Other insights from FinanceFuel
Collection letter: Third or Fourth Attempt
Collection letter templates: 60 days past due
FinanceFuel is an accounts receivable management solution that automates manual tasks to collect payments 25–50% faster. You can learn more about FinanceFuel on our website or, if you’re interested in speaking directly with a member of our customer success team, send us a note (sales@financefuel.co) and we’ll get back to you right away.
