At our Collection Agency in London, we are supplied with a wide variety of debts. Many have had had previous attempts at collection. We have tried to give you a few ideas on things not to do.

- Employing an agency that “Guarantees” to collect your money. This will usually result in you paying an upfront fee that will never be seen again

- Assuming “Everything will be alright” Be on top of your collections

- Assuming aggression will get your money paid More likely to lead to confrontation and a long wait to be paid

- Immediately reverting to court action Remember this fact: A CCJ is no guarantee of payment

- Ignoring your debtor’s problem Your client may just have a small issue. Don’t be scared to find out what the problem is.

- Horses for courses Often the worst person to make a chasing call is the Boss.

- Fail to Prepare, Prepare to fail Communicate your credit terms at the point of sale. If you don’t, you are leaving it to chance. Not a good idea.

- Don’t let a current debt become a write off. The only difference between a new debt and a write off, is…time (6-10 months on average)

- Organ grinders & monkeys Don’t fool yourself with the easy option. Chase your money with the person that holds the purse strings

- The last is actually a bit of advice…Get the experts in to do the job!

I’ll leave you with a quote - “Whenever a company produces something internally that others can buy or produce more efficiently and effectively, it sacrifices competitive advantage; focus on what gives your company its competitive edge, outsource the rest.”