When you are chasing payment

In the twilight zone of credit control, there has always been some ambivalence in the attitude taken by companies towards their customers. On the one hand, they cannot afford to alienate customers, and on the other hand they cannot afford bad debts. This uncertainty is revealed in the stock phrases that commonly occur in letters chasing payment:

• We thank you for your valued custom
• Failure to settle your account could result in suspension of service
• Your account is delinquent
• If you have paid within the past 7 days please ignore this letter and we apologise for troubling you

One reason for the strangulated language is that these letters have almost never been written by a copywriter. They were drafted by someone in credit control whose focus is debt recovery not customer relations, and they cannot usually see the connection.

Copywriters have a persuasive reflex. Their task is to get you to like their clients' companies and their offerings. They want to win you over, create that warm glow, develop the relationship.

Credit control people are focused on the figures. "You owe us money, we are not your bankers, you are holding things up" is what they really want to say. Such an attitude is in conflict with the concept of customer relations.

When I was Senior Copywriter at Reader's Digest, London, I volunteered to re-write the entire portfolio of credit control letters. As my main job was to write the music mailings and prize draws, my reflex was already pro-customer. I was therefore able to make both sets of letters congruent. Payment reminders started with the same tone of voice as the sales letters, and that made all the difference.

If you want someone's business, why would you ever use terms like "delinquent"? Why would you threaten to suspend service (e.g. mobile phones) and remind them that you hold the power to affect their business? It changes the flavour of the relationship, probably forever.

So my advice to all credit control departments is to integrate their communications with the marketing efforts. And employ a copywriter.

Phillip