Signs Your Customer Is Stalling

Know When the Time for
Excuses Has Passed

Remember telling your teacher, “My dog ate my homework,” when you didn’t complete your assignment on time? Yeah, we’ve all tried it at one point or another. Most of us eventually learned that excuses run out.

When it comes to making excuses, commercial customers can follow a strikingly similar behavioral pattern as middle school students — except they don’t necessarily learn their lesson until you intervene.

For a lingering commercial debt, when is it time to recognize that you’ve heard enough excuses and you need to send the customer’s account to collections? Several key warning signs demonstrate that your current methods are failing to bear fruit.

Ghosting

In the dating world, “ghosting” refers to the scenario in which one party withdraws from all forms of communication without explaining. Yet even in the absence of an explanation, it’s clear that they’ve lost interest.

Similarly, customers will “ghost” you when you’re pursuing a payment by ignoring your phone calls and emails. Are your emails going to their spam folder? That’s possible but unlikely. They’re just trying to avoid you, hoping you’ll eventually give up.

Nitpicking

Is a customer refusing to pay because your $1,000 invoice should be corrected to $982? Nitpicking is a classic strategy for skirting the real issue at hand. It’s not about the alleged minor pricing discrepancy but the debtor’s attempt to hold up the process and eventually escape the entire bill.

Deflecting

“I never received an invoice.” “I sent the payment out last week.” For the customer, those are some of the classic “my dog ate my homework” responses.

But deflecting blame should only work for so long. You know that the debtor has no intention to pay when they deny reality.

Falling Off the Map

This tactic is in the same strategic family as ghosting. Are you receiving an “out of office” message from the staff member at the business who handles accounts payable? Is the same staffer’s phone line going immediately to voicemail, or does the voicemail greeting claim they’re on vacation?

When your contact falls off the map, it’s probably not due to temporary unavailability if there’s a debt involved.

The Three-Strike Rule

At the same time, the decision to officially send a debt to collections should not be made lightly. There is a possibility — albeit slim — that your invoice was indeed lost in the mail or that the accounts payable specialist is on vacation.

But once you hear three or more different excuses from the customer, you can be sure they’re actively avoiding you and have no plans to pay. They’re out with three strikes and their account should be sent to collections.

Need Help?

Has the lingering commercial debt you’ve been pursuing reached the stage where it should be sent to collections? Or has the three-strike rule already made the situation clear?

Whether you’re trying to decide on whether to pursue collections or need help with the collection itself, BARR Credit Services will take the headache off your plate.

Pay attention to the warning signs. Our dedicated team of experts will help you sort through the excuses and successfully navigate the process of recovering unpaid balances from start to finish.

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