The Changing Face of Business
One of the things I want to do with my life is spin up my own business and make it to the point where I'm sustaining the lifestyle I've become accustomed to working on things that I want to work on. I'm not saying I'm going to abandon the Company any time soon, but it's always in the back of my mind.
Various people I know own small businesses (including the one I'm employed at) and I'm willing to bet (though I haven't asked, and it's not really the point) that their debt-collection schemes are all the same:
- Bill customer, wait for payment
- Send payment overdue notice, wait for payment
- Flag account delinquent, send notice, wait for payment
- Eventually push account off onto debt collection service
Yeah, that sounds fun.
Andy Clarke over at For A Beautiful Web recently mentioned a different angle he tried. Instead of continually badgering with overdue notices, they tried something different:
I chose to abandon a stiff business approach and instead write one email, carefully worded to express how I personally felt. After-all, business may be business, but people work with people.
And it worked. All three of the delinquent accounts paid in full within a few days, and a couple even called to personally apologize.
This is something you rarely find in larger corporations: the willingness to approach someone person to person and explain what the issue is. Anyone running a small business, take heed: this is how things should be done. If you have the ability to sit down as a person and really communicate something, you'll find that shit gets done.