Start with getting the new customer to completely fill in and sign your customer profile information document. Call their previous employer. Take a picture of their driver’s license and their vehicle including the license plate. This may seem invasive to you, but you are lending them your money. You have a right and need to know who you’re doing business with. Even if this technician is paying cash each week, getting their credit card information is another way of hopefully ensuring payment.
When your customer realizes that you know everything there is to know about them, they are a bit less likely to skip.
Be 100 percent sure they understand the repayment terms you are offering them. Give them a document with everything spelled out and get a signed copy that they acknowledge, accept, and understand your terms of repayment. The extra time you invest up front on this issue, the happier you and your customer will be.
As a side note, I realize that there are professional “skippers” who get something on credit from one jobber, pawn the product, keep the cash, and never pay back a dime. You might consider subscribing to a service that communicates mobile jobber skipper information on individuals nationwide, such as Tool Dealer Network. As a subscriber, you provide your skipper information to the database as do the other subscribers. You then simply look up your potential new customer to see if they have a record of skipping. As their database grows, so does your access to the bad technicians.
