Question

Why shouldn’t a credit manager be overly aggressive when first contacting a customer who has just missed a payment due date?

Answer 1

The customer may be a very good customer giving good volumes. The default might have been unintentional and may be due to temporary cash shortfall. Such situtations might not be in the know of the credit manager. So the credit manager could first give a gentle reminder and ask for a date within which the payment will be made. If a default is made even at that date the credit manager can toughen his stand.

If the credit manager becomes overly agressive at the first instance ifself, the customer may feel aggrieved and may adopt antagonistic actions like, not placing further orders and switching over to other supplier, fully or partially, may wantonly delay the payment further or may even complain about the quality of the goods, and so on. The result may be losing a potentially good customer permanently.