Credit guru Thea Dudley has spent more than 30 years in LBM credit management. Now she's here to answer your credit and collection questions. Got a question for her mailbag? Contact Thea at [email protected]

Dear Thea,
I am the credit manager of a regional supplier. It feels like every issue in the company ends up in my office. Whether it is a terms issue, pricing, application of the payment, product dispute, credit card fees, unhappy with the product, you name it, I end up dealing with it. Is this normal? How do I stick to credit and not be the company “fixer?”
Signed, Fed up in Florida

Dear Fed Exed;Don't you know by now that all roads lead to credit? Let me paint you a visual.

Imagine a giant funnel. Into this funnel goes everything to do with your business: sales, deliveries, billing, sales tax, marketing, you name it; it is swirling around in the funnel. What eventually plops out of the funnel's bottom is the stuff that didn't get dealt with. Those issues, for better or worse, land smack on your account receivable desk.

Pricing issue? It ends up in credit because someone short-paid the invoice or isn't paying it at all. Sales tax issue? It ends up in credit because someone short-paid the invoice or isn't paying it at all. Back charges? Damages? Incorrect terms? You can guess where they end up. Because right or wrong, for better or worse, that is where the money trail leads.

When people want to get your attention they usually go for the thing that will get the most attention the quickest. Withholding money is one of the best. Not paying me always gets my attention. And quickly. To get the issue resolved and off my aging, I am the one who has to chase down the issues, push for a solution so we can get paid.

Is it right? Is is fair? Is it irritating? Nope, nope, and most definitely, yes.

You don’t have to be the company “fixer.” You don't have to chase down the answers and endlessly nag the person who should have dealt with it or take it on yourself to correct the problem. You can just let it roll; let the problem play itself out. After all, how long can “issues” sit on an account before they magically disappear? I don’t know--how long until you retire and issues belong to someone else?

Basically, you have three choices:

1. Do nothing and let those issues ride. You know there is a story behind those issues, but you have been down that road before. No need to repeat it. Take the “Not my circus, not my monkeys” approach and proceed down the road less traveled to nothingville.

2. Take action. Put the account on hold. That’s right: stop releasing orders. After all, they are past due from those deductions. Then again, picture how that conversation would go:—You: “Yes, Mr. Customer, you are on hold, we have an outstanding $300 issue, and until you get it sorted out and resolved with your rep further orders are not happening.”
—Customer: “I understand it is our issue. But hey, it's not my job. So shoo shoo baby, and take your problems somewhere else.”

3. Take the Fixer label and run with it. Grab the reins and start assigning those issues, complete with fun follow-up emails gently “reminding” the accountable culprit and dodger of problems that the issue is not going and away on its own and, until solved, you will be all over them much like a rash: visible, uncomfortable and irritating.

What answer did you choose in our multiple choice selection? If you choose No. 1, you may need to find a new job. Your AR is going to look like a toddlers bedroom: messy as all get-out with junk scattered everywhere.

If you chose No. 2, you may be asked to find a new job. While I like the idea of side-stepping this issue and asking the customer to “deliver the mail to the right address,” and you absolutely will get the undivided attention of your sales rep (and not in the “you're the greatest credit manager I ever met” kind of way), it is also the quickest way to chap a customer's hiney. Remember the first rule of credit management: If at all possible, DO NOT tick off the person who cuts the checks. That rule is right up there with Thou Shall Not Offend the Receptionist.

That leaves us with what I am sure was your first choice all along: Dig in and make your issues EVERYONE’S issues. We are back to one of my favorite quotes: “If Mama ain’t happy, ain’t nobody gonna be happy.” If credit ain’t happy about an unpaid, unresolved account, heaven help all y'all.

Everything to do with customers' payments, or lack thereof, ends up passing through credit. The key is to not let them make a home there. Hold people accountable for the resolution. I like to think of it as a snowball effect: I start with one person and, as we go along with limited results, it picks up added people on the way. At some point, someone or everyone will get tired of me pelting them with emails, calls, personal visits (complete with angry credit manager face) and get it resolved.

I find it hastens the pace at which it is resolved when I point out how a monthly statement to the customer reminding them that we haven’t taken care of the issue is an outstanding way to show our customer service skills. Along with the added benefit of reporting the issue to the credit bureau- customers totally dig when you report them incorrectly due to your error.

Yes Dear Fed Exed, all this does sound slightly sarcastic and brutally calculated. It also works.