Tackling late payment – Shore Cast Solent
Today’s challenging climate of late payment has meant that a helping hand from an experienced outsourced debt collection agency can be a valuable resource to call upon to support in-house collections activity.
Southampton-based manufacturing business, Shore Cast Solent, engaged the services of Hilton-Baird Collection Services when a customer was proving elusive when it came to payment.
Managing Director, Graham Warren, explained “chasing payment was proving time consuming and a successful conclusion was looking unlikely”.
As is often the case, the involvement of a third party debt collection agency added weight to the request for payment, giving the customer the final push to settle its account.
Hilton-Baird’s consultative yet firm approach ensured Shore Cast Solent’s money was recovered.
A key advantage of utilising the resource of an outsourced debt collector is that it enables the business to maintain its relationship with the customer whilst the debt collection agency focuses on getting the payment in.
When Shore Cast Solent encountered a similar issue more recently, it once again called upon the services of Hilton-Baird Collection Services. In this particular instance, despite the fact that a payment plan had been agreed with the customer, payments were not forthcoming.
Hilton-Baird’s team worked closely with the customer and Shore Cast Solent to monitor the account and to get a new payment plan in place that would work.
Through regular dialogue with the customer, the plan of £500 per month was adhered to and Shore Cast Solent received payment in full from its customer.
Graham Warren said: “We were really pleased with the outcome of the first case so when we encountered another situation where a customer was proving elusive, we had no doubts about engaging Hilton-Baird once more.
“They liaised with us closely to keep us informed about the customer’s situation and subsequently collected payment in full plus a late payment fee which we are delighted about.”
For many businesses, a fully outsourced credit control function is not required but having a trusted debt collection agency to hand to provide support and assistance on trickier cases will ensure the debt is successfully collected whilst they are able to fully focus on taking their business forward.
