Don’t you just hate chasing unpaid invoices? I don’t get involved that much. Our persistent, pertinacious and polite people in accounts do most of it but occasionally I’ll pitch in if they feel they’re making absolutely no headway or the client is being wilfully obtuse (which, to be fair, is relatively rare).
I usually start off enquiring casually if there was any problem with our service and, if not, is there any particular reason they haven’t paid. This can open up a can of worms of excuses from that old chestnut “I can’t find your invoice in the system” to “the managing director is on holiday” and, in one instance, “I had to rush the cat to the vet so I’m behind on my paperwork”, a claim supported by emotive details about how long Tiddles had been in the family and how distraught the kids were.
As a rule of thumb, clients which pay late tend also to pay badly, often raising absurd quibbles and wrangling for a discount. In most cases, I knock a small amount off the bill, reinvoice them and, if they haven’t paid within 60 days, threaten them with the small claims court (where you can sue for debts up to £10,000). I don’t outsource to debt-chasing agencies partly because Mole Graphics has never been owed a large enough sum, by a company which has remained solvent, to make it seem worthwhile.
Sometimes, the wide-format industry does itself no favours. I have warned several companies about serial late or non-payers but, at least half the time, they carry on regardless. I suppose it’s partly arrogance - the idea that they can work their magic on a recalcitrant client or that you, as a print service provider, weren’t good enough - but when they complain to me, I essentially tell them, as Elvis Presley sang in the early 1970s, “It’s your baby, you rock it.”