By Trevor Deacon, Joint Managing Director of Oriel Collections - specialists in Consumer and Commercial debt collections.
"There can't be a company in the UK that isn't tightening up its Credit Management processes in the current climate"
"Certainly, looking at the profile of our recent client wins, they include a number of large companies, for whom, historically their ‘small value, high volume' overdue debt has not been a focus."
"Today, it is. We are in a climate where every penny counts. Companies are paying much greater attention to tight credit control and those using Collection agencies are bringing them in earlier rather than later, and there are many newcomers to outsourcing where previously we were off the radar."
"Historically, perhaps, some companies resisted bringing in Collections agencies because of brand reputation issues. Pragmatism is now the order of the day and any stigma formerly attached to using a Collections operation has long gone."
"We are also seeing many companies who are now losing their insurance cover on their key debtors, meaning they have to increase their collections activities or face losses"
"Feedback from our Collections teams is that it is becoming noticeably more difficult to contact debtors and companies' Purchase Ledger departments because of growing workforce rationalisation. If you can actually get to speak to someone about a debt, there are then various delaying tactics coming into play. Our collectors are getting a lot more broken promises and where one or two phone calls would previously have sufficed, we are now making three or four"
"We are escalating accounts far more often, having to speak to more senior people and FDs which in turn is opening up opportunities for us to talk to them about debt collection services."
For more information on how Oriel Group can help you outsource collections please call 0845 226 1812 or read about Collections.
