How to Deal with Different Types of Late Paying Customers

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If you run a business, there’s a high chance that you’ve come across the occasional late-paying client. Situations like this can be frustrating, but there are a couple of things that you can do to try and help your business to get paid on time.

Clients who are Chronic Late-Payers

The chronic late-payer will usually pay up eventually, but that doesn’t mean that those invoices aren’t stacking up in the meantime. If you want to help yourself here, you need to identify which clients often end up paying late. You then need to establish an automatic invoice reminder feature. This will send them notifications whenever they need to make a payment, and it will also discourage them from doing it on a regular basis. 

Clients who Forget their Payment Details

If you have that one client who always seems to forget your payment details when the time comes to pay, then you need to make sure that you include your details whenever you send out an invoice. You might also want to offer an immediate payment option so that they can settle the bill as soon as they have received your service. If you want a more high-tech solution, it may be worth adding a payment link in your invoice email as this will help them to be more proactive in paying.

Clients who Can’t Afford to Pay

If a client hasn’t paid your invoice yet, then this doesn’t mean that they don’t plan on paying at all. They may be experiencing some short-term cash problems, or they may even be going through a hard time. Either way, sometimes a simple conversation can smooth out any issues and it can also help to put your mind at ease too. By being honest and upfront with your clients, you can help to maintain that positive relationship and you can also retain their loyalty too. If you want to help yourself, even more, consider giving them an extension when you are aware of their circumstances.

Clients who Need Way More Time

Some clients might push your bill to the back of their priority list. They may feel as though they have tons more things to deal with before they get to yours and in some instances, they may even not concern themselves with paying at all. Demanding the payment in this instance won’t help you much and it is a very ineffective way of doing things. If you want to get around this, it may be worth arranging some kind of payment plan. This will help them to stay on top of your invoices and it will also stop your cash flow from being affected as much.

Clients who go AWOL

There really is nothing worse than having a client who vanishes without a trace. You may contact them, only to find that they aren’t returning your calls or even your emails. You don’t have many options here, and in some instances, you may even need to get a local debt authority involved to resolve the situation.

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