management (CRM) function. This CRM tool will help you better under-stand your customers’ purchase history, preferences and challenges. Over time, this information will allow you to translate your customers’ invoice paying practices into stronger customer relation-ships and increased sales. ■ Make it part of your brand This is yet one more customer relations touch point you can use to positively rein-force your brand image. Use your receivables system to cre-ate consistent, friendly checkpoints that enhance your relationship with your clients. Include helpful hints in your invoices, and ask your customers what other services or products would be helpful to them. You can customize information for your business. Contests, surveys, “Thank-Yous” and company news all have their place in the billing cycle. Don’t forget that payments are still an aspect of your brand, so they should align with any customer communication that you have in place. You can ensure a consistent brand image and messaging across all channels by auto-mating these interactions as much as pos-sible. Payments handled well can actually trans-late to more profitable customer relation-ships by increasing customer satisfaction. ■ Make it recurring Set it and forget it. Recurring payments make it easier for both you and your customers while decreas-ing late payments. Once you’ve set it up, you’ve eliminated the monthly busywork involved in invoicing, errors that can occur as you manually invoice and the awkward and time-consuming follow-up required for late or unpaid invoices. You can actually present recurring pay-ments as a helpful customer service, saving your customers time and expense by cutting the number of checks they’ll have to mail and eliminating any chance of late fees or other penalties. ■ Make it green “Going green” can save you time and money while making you and your custom-ers feel good about helping the environ-ment. Web-based and mobile tools eliminate paper while saving you time and money and ensuring accuracy with your customer. According to The Green Billing Survey 2010, conducted by Javelin Strategy & Research, every paper statement converted to electronic can save you, on average, $1 in postage, paper and labor costs. These tips will help your company get its receivables practice under control, dispel any misconceptions about invoicing and create a customer payment relationship that benefits your business and the companies it serves. CM David Shapiro is Western Union’s senior vice presi-dent of global consumer financial services. For more information about how Western Union can help you perform an accounts receivable makeover, visit http://SmallBusiness.WesternUnion.com. Product Information no. 207 on page 24 Product Information no. 210 on page 24 www.cmmonline.com 33
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