All the caution in the world will not eliminate late payments and skips as they are a fact in your business life. They need to be handled quickly and firmly and, unfortunately, our legal system says you can’t be like Tony Soprano sending your monster collection encouragement agents to motivate your customers’ repayments. So, what can you do when the need for collections happens?
At the very first sign of a problem, take the person aside from their coworkers and kindly talk openly about their obligation to you. Explain that you understand that problems arise in everyone’s life and that you will be happy to work with them on their payments but firmly impress upon them that you expect your money. If you come across as less than firm, you will be seen as an easily delayed payment. In the first instance, you need to not come across as overly aggressive or hostile but certainly not wishy-washy.
Make sure your customer pays something, even if it is not a full payment but don’t let this continue. There are some states where if you continue to accept partial payments the courts may decide that you were satisfied with these partial payments and must now allow them.
You need to be very careful that you do not impugn someone’s character at their workplace since this can lead to a defamation lawsuit. But asking your “no-pay” customer for your payments loud enough for some co-workers to hear is not without its merit. Walking in the shop and announcing that you are looking for that deadbeat so-in-so is not the best way to approach this problem.
