I got chatting to someone at a networking event who asked what I do. When I told her about credit control, she recommended a piece of software that does all your chasing for you. She’d set it going, it did everything, and it was “really good”.

I couldn’t help wondering what really good meant. It might mean the money comes in quicker, or it might simply mean she never has to think about it, and those are two very different things.

Automated reminders have their place, and I’ll come to that. The bigger issue I see is a habit of chasing entirely by email, whether that’s reminders sent by software or emails typed out one at a time. When you don’t get a response, it’s tempting to send another, and then another, until you’re owed money by someone who hasn’t said a word to you in weeks.

“I’ve sent the invoice and several reminders, and they still haven’t paid me.”

If that sounds familiar, this blog is for you.

Why We Reach for Email

Email is convenient. You can send it at eleven o’clock at night (not that I’d recommend working those hours!), you don’t have to think on your feet, and nobody can say “no” to you there and then. It’s also great for sharing lots of information and sending copy invoices.

Remote and hybrid working has made it even more of a default. Plenty of people working from home don’t have a work phone number, and quite rightly, they don’t want to give their personal mobile to suppliers. If they’re hybrid, you might call on a Tuesday and find they’re not back in the office until Friday. Email can start to feel like the only reliable way to reach anyone.

The result is that many business owners will email a reluctant payer until the cows come home, and do everything they can to avoid picking up the phone.

Why the Phone Feels Harder Than It Used To

We’ve got so used to texts, WhatsApp and messaging apps that talking on the phone has become uncomfortable for a lot of people. With a message, you can sit with it for a while and work out how you want to respond before you reply. A phone call doesn’t give you that time, and one of the biggest worries is being asked something you don’t know the answer to.

That worry comes up far more than you’d expect. I once ran a sales training session for a group of credit controllers, and they told me they preferred email because it gave them time to prepare a response. These were people with years of experience they could have drawn on in the moment, yet they wanted time to reflect before replying. Back when I was managing credit control teams in larger businesses, I found it harder and harder over the years to get newer staff to pick up the phone at all.

Behind it is a feeling that the client expects you to have every answer there and then, and they don’t. “Let me look into that and come back to you by Thursday” is a perfectly professional thing to say, and it keeps things moving without you having to make something up on the spot.

The Fear of Confrontation

Then there’s the fear of confrontation and the fear of hearing “no”. Those fears were around long before email, which simply gives us a convenient way to avoid them. In my experience, when a payment conversation does turn uncomfortable, it usually comes from embarrassment on the other side, and knowing that makes it much easier to stay calm.

For some people, phone calls cause real anxiety, and I’d never suggest putting your wellbeing at risk. If that’s you, having someone else make the calls is a far better answer than leaving invoices unchased. For many, it’s more of a mild discomfort, and understanding where it comes from makes it much easier to deal with.

What Automated Reminders Are Good For

I’m a big fan of making life as easy as possible, and automation takes care of the routine nudges. It catches the clients who pay late because they’re busy and forget.

I always recommend a few automated reminders. For business clients, send one a few days before the due date, since there’s often a process an invoice has to go through before it’s paid, and a friendly reminder helps make sure everything’s on track. Send one to everyone on the due date, and another a couple of days after, to say these things can get overlooked and you’d appreciate it being sorted now.

I don’t send reminders before the due date to consumers. In my experience, individuals see them as being chased for money they don’t owe yet, and they can get quite narky about it! Paying is usually a quick job on their banking app, so there’s no approval process to prompt.

Automation also makes sense when you’ve got a high volume of low-value invoices and calling everyone isn’t practical.

Whatever you set up, change the standard wording. Default reminders all look the same, and clients recognise them straight away. Give them some of your business’s personality and they’re far less likely to be skimmed and deleted.

Why Reminders Get Ignored

What you want from a reminder is for the client to pay, so you don’t have to think about that invoice again. If that isn’t going to happen, you want a reply telling you when it will be paid, or what the problem is. Too often, you get neither.

Even with better wording, reminders are easy to ignore. Some clients spot an automated email and scroll on by. Others have every intention of paying or replying and never get round to it, because they’re busy people with full inboxes.

Then there are the clients who have a problem with the invoice or the work. Very often, they’ll ignore you instead of dealing with it, and save the query for when you finally get them on the phone. I came across a forum post from a carpenter whose client ignored his emails and his request for a payment date, and only raised complaints about the workmanship after he sent a seven day letter, nearly five weeks later.

There’s also the question of whether your emails are being seen at all. Automated emails can end up in spam or bounce back, and if nobody’s keeping an eye on them, you’ll never know.

If all a client ever gets from you is an email, it’s too easy for them to keep you at arm’s length.

Before You Let the Software Do It All

There’s a lot of software around that promises to do all your chasing for you. Before you hand everything over, ask yourself three questions. Does it improve the business? Does it help your relationships with clients? Will it get the money into your bank account quicker?

If your automated emails are being ignored, the answer to all three is no. Some software claims to learn how each client pays and adapt to it, and it may well get better results than doing nothing. It still won’t get to the root of why someone hasn’t paid, because it can’t do emotional intelligence, and that’s one of the most important qualities a credit controller has. It’s the ability to read between the lines and hear what isn’t being said, and even the best system in the world can only work with what it’s given, not with what it isn’t.

What a Phone Call Does That Email Can’t

A five minute phone call gives you a proper back and forth. You ask a question, get an answer, ask the next one, and you’ve got to the bottom of it. By email, that same exchange can take two or three weeks, one question and one reply at a time.

On the phone, you can hear someone’s tone of voice, which tells you whether what they’re saying is genuine or whether you’re being fobbed off. That’s where you pick up the things software can’t, and it’s usually where you’ll find the real reason you haven’t been paid.

A well-timed phone call can achieve what weeks of emails won’t.

I once coached a social media manager who’d emailed a client around five times without a reply. We talked through how to prepare for the call, she picked up the phone, and it turned out some parts of the work had stopped a little earlier than others during the client’s notice period, and he didn’t feel he should have to pay for those. They agreed a small reduction, and she got paid.

That’s why I don’t see the phone as a last resort. Once your reminders have gone out and you’ve had neither a payment nor a reply, the phone is your next step, well before the invoice is weeks overdue. Email still has its place, especially for confirming what you agreed on the call while it’s fresh in everyone’s mind.

When You Can’t Get Hold of Them

Sometimes the phone goes unanswered, or it goes to voicemail and nobody calls you back. Worst case, the number’s wrong or no longer in service.

If the client is local, go and see them. If you find the premises empty, you know you’ve got a problem, and if someone’s there, at least you’re talking to a person.

With clients all over the country, that isn’t always possible, so do some digging. Are they still trading? If they’re a business, what does a credit report say about their ability to pay? Ask around people who know them, and look at whether they’re still active on social media. A LinkedIn or Facebook message can sometimes get a reply when email and phone haven’t.

You can also go up a level. Depending on the size of the business, find out who your contact reports to, or who the finance director is, and bring them into the conversation. LinkedIn is a good place to look, and people sometimes list their contact details there too.

If they’re still ghosting you after all that, that’s when formal escalation starts, with a letter telling them you’ll be charging interest, a letter before action, and in the end the small claims court. These tend to prompt a reply, and they’re the right next step at that point.

What Silence Can Tell You

When we take on credit control for a new client, we’re often picking up a backlog of old invoices. With a long enough list, we invariably find at least one client who’s gone into some sort of insolvency arrangement, and by then the money can’t be collected. Nobody knew, because nobody was chasing, or the automated emails were bobbing along with no one checking where they were going.

An earlier call might have picked up the warning signs in time to agree a payment plan or get some money in.

It’s a good reason to collect more than an email address whenever you take on a new client. Get a phone number and a postal address, and the details of someone further up, such as the finance director, so you’ve got somewhere to go if you ever need to escalate.

The Credit Control Call Is Very Much Alive

Automation is handy for the routine nudges. What it can’t do is keep asking questions. Software tends to stop once it has an answer, even when that answer isn’t the real one, whereas a good credit controller channels their inner five year old and keeps asking why until they get to the bottom of why payment is late.

If you’re hiding behind email, take a moment to work out what it is about picking up the phone that stops you. It might be the fear of confrontation, not knowing what to say, or worrying you won’t have the answers. Once you know what’s holding you back, you can do something about it.

If you’d like to talk that through and feel more confident about making those calls, get in touch. If phone calls are something you’d rather never make, our outsourced credit control service means someone else picks up the phone for you.

About the Author

Nicki Kinton is the founder of Confident Cashflow and a member of the Chartered Institute of Credit Management. She helps small businesses get paid quicker, with less stress and without damaging the relationships they’ve worked hard to build. Sign up for her weekly email, or follow Nicki on LinkedIn, for regular tips on getting paid.