Every business owner has come across this situation before where your check doesn’t arrive.  What does the customer on the other end expect?  Free service month by month?  If you don’t do anything about it, the customer is going to continue to do it and there are things that you can do in order to keep your cash flowing smoothly.

Call up your customer:  I’ve found in the past that they simply forgot or they lost it in the mail.  This isn’t the case most of the time but the first thing that I would do is call them up and ask them why they haven’t paid?  Depending on the answer, you could potentially set up a payment plan or discontinue the service, etc.  This all depends on what kind of business you run.

Send a letter in the mail:  If you can’t get a hold of the person on the phone or even if you have, send a bill in the mail and make sure that it’s marked overdue so that they notice it.  Explain nicely what will happen if they don’t pay it, etc.  Let them know what they owe and when it’s due by.

Follow up after 15 days:  If I don’t hear back or see any type of payment after 15 days, I will send out a letter again but this time I won’t be as nice.  By now, it’s time to cancel any service or whatever it is you may due.  If they have already collected the item, etc, tell them that it may be repossessed.

Follow up again after 30 days:  I think you see the trend here.  Every 20-30 days or so, follow up with the client and see why they aren’t paying.  If they don’t answer or ignore you, you may be out of luck.  If you can continue to contact them, let them know whats going on.  You won’t want to be rude but get your point across.

If after 90 days, you can’t get them to pay up, you’re going to be out of luck.  You’ll most likely have to turn it over to a collection’s agency and from there, you’ll just not have to do business with this person ever again.  Now, these tips can work above but make sure you don’t come across too aggressive and try to work something out.  Most people want to pay but just can’t.  In whatever you do, let’s hope these tips work for you and you get your money.

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