Great article over at bnet.com that talks about how to get customers to pay their old bills.

Basically, they suggest three things:

1. Encourage customers to pay early
2. Make your letters and phone calls firm
3. Work with customers before you send them to collection

Fortunately, most photographers don’t have to worry about past-due accounts since they don’t deliver photographs until they are paid in full. However, you do have to worry about unclaimed prints or unreturned proof books. In either case, it is just like an unpaid bill - the money isn’t in your pocket.

So how can you use these 3 tips to your advantage?

1. If you’re like most photographers, you already offer a special or a discount to customers who complete their orders by a certain date. If you are using proof books, have your customer sign a release that states the proof book has a dollar value that will be billed to them if not returned by an agreed upon date.

2. The secret to getting either money or proof books back is to force the customer to agree to a date, then hold them to it. This is how professional collection firms do it. For example:

Photographer: “When can I expect you to return the proof book?”

Client: “I’ll drop it off next week.”

Photographer: “What day next week would be most convenient?”

Client: “I’ll be in town Tuesday.”

Photographer: “What time Tuesday?”

etc.

Be polite, but don’t worry about the customers who get mad. They had no intention of returning the proof book anyway. You need to firmly, yet politely agree on a specific time, then hold them to it. Then call the day before and remind them.

3. No one likes to call on past due accounts. If you have a bookkeeper, you may be tempted to leave the task to them (which they will only do half-hearted), or if you are a one-person operation, you will tend to put off confronting a customer until you get so frustrated you send their account to collection.

Neither solution works - you have to do it yourself. Although it takes personal discipline to call clients regularly after they miss a deadline, it always pays off in the end. Once the account goes to collection, you’ve not only lost 75-90% of the amount due to the collection agency, but you’ve lost a customer for life.

Tags: business

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