Battle-axe is getting in the cash. Why am I worried?

Dear Aunty B,

We recently decided to improve our cashflow after working out that about half our bills were being paid 90 days after the invoice was issued. We decided to employ someone who would aggressively chase late bills. We hired this old spinster battleaxe who is so scary you would send your money in just to avoid all future calls!

This has worked really well as we are getting more money in the door, especially from the casual customer, but she has also upset a few customers with her attitude. Should I ignore a few complaints in exchange for sleeping at night? I have asked her to tone it down but she operates at one speed. I am hoping as things pick up, she won’t have to chase so hard. Am I right?

RT,
Sydney

Dear RT,

So what you are asking is this. Is it ok to let an abusive person call your valued customers and aggressively chase them for money? No. It’s not. Order her to tone it down. Think of the effort you put into sales, the relationship, the partnership and the people. Why have a “scary” person from your company shoot that down in one phone call?

Here is what you must do. Explain the values of your organisation. Tell her that every time she picks up the phone she represents your company. Is your company scary? No. Is it aggressive? No. Does it value customers? Yes!

Deal with this immediately before she does any more damage. There are lots of ways to get in money in a professional way. And don’t assume the cashflow crisis will ease any time soon. Past recessions have taught us that companies get into a habit of paying money late and it can take a while after the recession has ended for the cash sitting culture to shift.

Good luck!
Your Aunty B

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