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Rank: Member
Groups: Member
Joined: 10/28/2010
Posts: 26
Points: 78
Location: Seattle, WA
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As my company grows I am getting more and more customers that are not paying. Does anyone sell their accounts to a collection service? If so, who do you use? Also, is it worth it?
Brandon Bradshaw
Seattle, WA
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Rank: Advanced Member
Groups: Member
Joined: 10/7/2009
Posts: 50
Points: 53
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Ain't worth the high blood pressure. Collection agencies will want you to provide responses and documentation for customer claims about poor service, skipped service, already paid invoices, unsigned service tickets, dog ate invoices. There is no avoiding the dirty work if you want your past due money. I had minimal luck with them and I was doing all the work so I just tightened up our credit policies.
For residential I get the VISA or MasterCard number when scheduling the initial service.
For commercial I ask for the credit card number but they often want to write a check. I just make sure to speak to "payables department". Its a lot easier on me to collect before the debt than collecting later. If the customer acts defensive about it, I stick to COD and don't have a new collection problem.
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Rank: Advanced Member
Groups: Member
Joined: 10/27/2009
Posts: 66
Points: 101
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Collection agencies - round here anyway-
want 40% which is far to much. Plus they look at the amount-- it's usually under 100-- and I don't think want to work very hard to get the money....
I hired a lady who did collections for the phone company for years, she's quite good at it.
I'd do payment due at time of service and actually ask them once you walk in the door..no $$$, tell them it's company policy and tell them you'll be back when you can get a check...
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Rank: Noob
Groups: Member
Joined: 2/10/2013
Posts: 2
Points: 6
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My first business model, I choose to elect to give my customers the option to finance their payments and provided a 30 day net. If my customers were past net I would charge them a late fee and interest. Some customers understood this and just dealt with it but I always tried to send an email with 2 weeks of the service to let them know they are unpaid and to avoid late fees and interest they needed to make a payment by a certain date. As my business grew, this didn't always work the way I planned it too. I eventually did send people to collections and the late fee paid for the cost if there was a successful collection, if not there was no charge for the collection companies service. Truth be told, I hated collecting late fees, interest, and really hated pushing to collections. When I sold my business and started up my new pest control business in Las Vegas, NV I started a new business model. Payment is due at the time of service or prior to service -otherwise I do not service. This business model provides so much relief with dealing with customers because in most cases, the customer is financing the service with you and then paying with a credit card, and financing with the bank on top of it. My recommendation is prepayment -like I accept on my website http://www.newpestsolutions.com or accepting payment at the time of service by credit card with a smart phone tool like square, Paypal, or intuit. You will have less stress in your life and customers will appreciate the added control of payments.
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