Chasing debt can be a laborious and draining task for businesses of all sizes. Unfortunately, far too many companies spend excessive time and effort trying to recoup overdue payments.

According to a survey of 1,000 CEOs, founders, directors and senior management, the UK SME sector is crippled by late payments, with businesses chasing over £50bn worth of unpaid invoices.

Collecting a debt can be time-consuming for many businesses, taking precious resources that could otherwise be used to cultivate customer relationships, improve the business or find new customers.

The risk of having to chase debt is a major factor when deciding which customers to do business with. On average, each small business is chasing five unpaid invoices at once and spending up to two hours every day trying to get them paid. 

The situation is even worse for those based in London – on average they’re waiting on seven payment requests totalling almost £9,000. Meanwhile, Scotland-based businesses are dealing with six overdue bills taking on average one hour and fifteen minutes out of their days attempting recovery.

Time Spent on Chasing Debt

It is estimated that businesses in the UK spend an average of 10 hours per week chasing overdue payments, which equates to roughly 500 hours per year. This enormous amount of time could be better spent focusing on improving the business or finding new customers. In addition to this lost time, staff wages must also be considered when calculating the total cost of chasing debt.

Costs Associated with Chasing Debt

The costs associated with chasing debt goes beyond just lost time and wages; there are other financial implications. For example, many companies outsource their debt collection efforts to free up internal resources for different tasks. This means additional costs associated with hiring third-party collection agencies or lawyers specialising in debt recovery. These costs can add up quickly and drastically reduce profits if not managed properly.

Impact on Cash Flow

The most significant impact that chasing debt has on a business is its impact on cash flow. Late payments can cause cash flow issues, leading to delays in paying suppliers or employees, resulting in decreased productivity and customer satisfaction. Delayed payments also affect credit ratings which can further limit the company’s ability to secure financing from banks or other lenders.

Chasing down unpaid debts is a costly process for any business – both financially and timewise – but it doesn’t have to be so difficult if you know what steps you need to take beforehand and have systems in place that help you manage your accounts efficiently.

Fortunately, businesses can gain access to efficient and user-friendly solutions that automate much of the process. This eliminates the need for manual processes, reducing costs and time associated with debt collection. Additionally, automated systems can reduce human error in data entry and ensure that companies adhere to compliance requirements when collecting payments.

Saascoms specialises in customer engagement solutions and offers a range of products to help automate the process of collecting past-due debts. Automating this process frees up cash flow for a business, which could be more effectively used elsewhere. In addition, it helps businesses avoid costly legal action that may not be successful.

To learn more about Saascoms solutions, please don’t hesitate to contact us today. We would be happy to answer any questions you may have.

Contact us today to learn more about debt collection automation

As the effects of the pandemic and the current cost of living crisis are felt more than ever, more businesses and individuals are struggling financially. The morality and approach regarding debt recovery is again a hot yet uncomfortable topic and will remain so for the foreseeable future.

Our clients, both in the public and private sectors, utilise our debt recovery solutions for this reason. Both effective and simple to apply in the face of this growing issue, our technology has been developed to be both ethical and moral in what is always a difficult situation.

Saascoms offers solutions developed with the ethics and moral dilemmas around debt recovery and has again come out as one of the most innovational and powerful companies in the credit and collections technology sector, recently winning two awards. One in the best Contact Centre Solution category and the other in the use of Artificial intelligence in credit and collection solutions. The judge’s comments can be read at the end of this article.

According to The Money Charity, the average total debt per UK household in March this year increased to £64,107. This amounts to households owing more than £1,781.7 billion, a rise of £63.4 billion from the same period last year.

Our technology includes several features to help with this unfortunate growth in debt, ensuring our clients can comply with the standards set out by the Financial Conduct Authority – putting people at the centre of moral debt prevention & recovery.

Since 69% of people who struggle with debt don’t want to talk to anyone about their situation, Saascoms supports a frictionless self-serve and ethically sound customer experience by allowing customers to avoid unwanted phone calls while controlling their debt and repayment plan. Research has shown that the digital approach far outweighs outdated and unreliable mail appearing on the doorstep.

Customers now expect to engage at their convenience, using multiple technologies. It is predicted that by 2025 85% of all customer service interactions will exist without person-to-person involvement great offering.

Saascoms award-winning customer contact strategy solutions cover all these aspects while also allowing debtors some degree of control and choice over their finances, assisting them in getting back on track with a regular payment schedule.

The Saascoms team works with businesses to create bespoke solutions specific to their requirements, challenges, and objectives.

Saascoms ‘collections’ AI engine has monitored and analysed over 100 million conversations and agent responses in the Collections & Arrears environment over the last four years, giving our processing engine a 93.7% intent and sentiment match success rate. Our AI can detect a vulnerability and match the category of vulnerability, i.e., suicide, self-harm, emotional, terminal illness, substance addiction, bereaved customers, or financial distress (can’t pay you vs cannot pay rent/mortgage).
The same approach is also used when identifying other vulnerabilities, i.e., mental or physical health. The bot immediately triggers an API to cease contact strategy and links to external organisations, i.e., The Samaritans. The conversation is then flagged in a high-priority escalation queue.

The Saascoms solution allows clients to tailor their approach to their customers, offering a number of functions allowing for self-serve within their account without needing a mobile app. On receipt of the message, using Saascoms Secure Portal, the recipient is offered a unique one-time use URL which takes them to a custom landing page where they are asked to validate their ID. Once security is passed, they are presented with a screen resembling an app allowing them to click buttons to activate the options offered.

From a business standpoint, the self-serve model has produced apparent advantages: freeing-up support workers to spend more time dealing with complicated issues and helping some of the most vulnerable customers who require further assistance.

Working towards better outcomes is of paramount importance within debt recovery – both from a debtor’s point of view and because it makes solid business and financial sense. This is especially true for individuals who are vulnerable and require much more support.

Saascoms has supported debt recovery companies for almost 20 years in an effort to de-stigmatise debt and extend further support to some of the most vulnerable members of our communities. Through a more understanding approach, conversational communications develop relationships and have tangible benefits. Our digital communication techniques help organisations shift away from one-way communication.

Get in touch to learn how Saascoms can assist with the implementation of a new customer communication strategy to help your business.

Saascoms technology puts people first at the heart of ethical debt prevention & recovery.

The Judges’ comments were as follows:

• The Judges said Saascoms stood out with its focus on customer experience.
• Saascoms solution demonstrated a smart use of technology to maximise resolution.
• Saascoms demonstrated a good use of analytics-driven technology to define the recovery strategy and customer journey, with a single point of resolution via self-service.
• The solution showed an important focus on better consumer experience.
• The focus on enhancing the customer experience with intuitive tech journeys gives this entry the winning edge.
• Saascoms demonstrated a sophisticated collections platform.
• Saascoms produced great metrics with enhanced interaction.
• Saascoms solution is a proven platform.
• This is a great solution with excellent scope. This is a clear opportunity to deliver business benefits through automation and speech analytics.
• Saascoms platform showcases an impressive AI NLP offering for any high-volume call centre.
• This solution meets the customer’s needs. Customers now expect to engage at their convenience, using multiple technologies. It is predicted that by 2025 85% of all customer service interactions will exist without person-to-person involvement great offering.