Experian Launches Tool to Help Small Businesses Collect

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Posted: 13 May 2012 08:58 PM PDT

Experian has launched a new service to help small businesses quickly evaluate new customers for payment risk, monitor to see if risk changes, and collect past due amounts.

The product is an online subscription service called BusinessIQ Express. It’s an all-in-one dashboard to help you quickly evaluate companies that are customers and prospective customers. You also get alerts if the risk of repayment changes. And in the event you are not getting paid, the tool helps you collect.

According to Adam Fingersh, senior vice president of Experian's Business Information Services, it helps you “look for indications of financial stress in your customers.” So you can get paid … promptly.

BusinessIQ Express is an interesting tool because small businesses can find intelligence on companies they may need to extend credit or payment terms to — without actually pulling a credit report. A lot of information is centralized in one place. I can see it benefiting an accounts receivable department to stay on top of changes, too. If you keep close tabs on your Days Sales Outstanding (DSO) number, and monitor it for cash flow purposes and as a sign of the overall fiscal health of your company, you especially will appreciate a tool like this.

Another thing I liked about it was the help it gives for collecting past due payments: skip tracing, writing collection letters and finding a collection agency. And with everything available in a single convenient dashboard, you also get a streamlined process to follow and recordkeeping support.

Let’s take a deeper look into its 3 parts: Evaluate, Monitor and Collect.

Evaluate

When you log on, one of the first things you do is enter in the names of companies that are customers or that you are considering as customers. If the company is in the system, it will pull up information including basics such as the company address and even a small map.

This section gives you a risk rating for each company (high, mid or low) and a credit limit recommendation (a dollar amount). Here’s a partial view — notice the High risk rating in this sample customer:

Evaluate

BusinessIQ shows whether there are any bankruptcies, judgments or liens against the company — as well as a collection history. What you see is not an official credit report — but you do have the ability to order a credit report for an additional fee on a company.

And because many small businesses are only as solid as the owner behind them, you can also get some basic information about the owner. You can request permission from the owner directly in the tool to pull a credit report on the owner.

Monitor

The monitoring function allows you to keep tabs on the repayment risk with existing customers and get alerts in the event the customer becomes a higher risk, such as filing a bankruptcy. All alerts you get will remain in your dashboard so they are in one place for later reference:

Alerts

Collect

This part of the tool helps you collect outstanding payments if necessary. For instance, it helps you find alternative addresses for the customer, in case you have the wrong address for sending invoices.

There are also collection letter templates — from friendly to “severely-worded.” You customize the template, then print and mail them on your end. The letter also appears under the Collect tab so that you have a record of it.

Collect

You’ll also find links to collection agencies, should you need to go that far. All collection agencies are “reporting agencies” meaning that the collection will be reported on the collection target’s credit record.

The tool also includes a Coach’s Corner to give you tips on how to use BusinessIQ Express better. And there is a library of educational articles. For $99 per month (currently $750 if you pay annually in advance), you can evaluate and monitor up to 100 companies. There’s also the ability to register for free and get free alerts and to see part of the product’s functionality.

Experian is a global company known for its credit reporting and business data, with annual revenues exceeding $4 Billion and 15,000 employees. The BusinessIQ Express tool is designed to be used by small businesses in just about any industry, if they have financial or customers relationships with other businesses.

From Small Business Trends

Experian Launches Tool to Help Small Businesses Collect

Book Review: High Tech, High Touch Customer Service

Posted: 13 May 2012 05:30 AM PDT

High Tech, High Touch Customer Service "What if you don't want to use social media for your business?" This is a question that I'm often asked and my answer is the same. "You don't have to." There is no right or wrong. There are successful, profitable businesses out there that don't have a web site or a cell phone or a social media profile. And in the same breath, I have to say that if you don't use social media – then social media will be using you.

And this is exactly the point that Micah Solomon makes in his book High-Tech, High-Touch Customers Service: Inspire Timeless Loyalty in the Demanding New World of Social Commerce. The executive summary of this book is to respect digital media like you would respect fire when it comes to customer service.

Inside High-Tech. High-Touch

This book is organized in three parts:

Part 1: Timeliness and Timelessness will give you plenty of examples of what customer services looks like when it's done right and when it's done wrong.

Part 2: High-Tech, High-Touch Anticipatory Service will help you being to understand the importance of loyalty and how to build a loyal customer base using social media tools.

Part 3: The Rise of Self-Service and Social Media and Other Seismic Shifts will take out on a technological tour of self service, social media and electronic customer impact.

Another great feature of High-Tech, High-Touch is the summary at the end of each section wonderfully titled "And your point is…" to indicate that these are just the most important points for you to remember. You will be glad that this is included in the book because Solomon provides what seems like a million examples of the good, the bad and the ugly of customer service and you may get so involved in the stories that you forget what you'd like to take away from the section. This will definitely solve that problem.

Micah Solomon Is The Go-to-Guy for Customer Service

I have to admit that I had never heard of Micah Solomon (@micahsolomon) until I received this book as a review copy. But after reading this book and checking out his web site, I could see why he's considered a "new guru of customer service." He's a keynote speaker, entrepreneur and business leader who has co-authored the bestselling book Exceptional Service, Exceptional Profit. His expertise has been featured in Fast Company, Inc Magazine, Bloomberg, BusinessWeek, CNBC, Forbes and more. You can also find his musings on his blog College of the Customer.

Read It And Weep. Read It And Smile. Read It And Learn

Solomon writes this book almost as if he's writing a product review. His tone is friendly and humorous – maybe because it makes some of those painfully bad examples of customer service go down easier. My favorite example is actually right in the beginning of the book where he gives the example of "Marshall Plympton (not his actual name, although I was tempted):"

“If any other bleepholes [except Marshall didn't type "bleepholes] like "Jjmanie319" are thinking of coming to my restaurant, listen up: Please DON'T come. Just DON'T. I have enough work serving the rest of you people without this kind of grief. And Jjhamie319, so WHAT if your soup was cold. "Cold" is subjective. We are only three people in the kitchen, sometimes four depending on the season. Can YOU keep soup hot at YOUR house? Big bleeping deal that it was quote, unquote "cold" twice. Don't come in again – make your own soup. Hope you scald your mouth.”

Yeah – there are business owners who actually write this stuff on Yelp. Although I'm not sure if this book would help Marshall. I'm inclined to agree with Solomon, that this guy needs a new career and not really this book.

Who Will Benefit Most From High-Tech, High-Touch?

This book is IDEAL for business owners who sell to consumers. Most of the stories and examples in the book revolve around those companies who sell to consumers. So if you're a retail business, restaurant or other service business that sells to regular people, you will find examples and lessons galore.

Business to business organizations who generally shy away from all things social media may actually find justification for NOT participating. I mean who needs these kinds of headaches. And you would be right. There is only one BIG problem with this point of view – your customers are people and your customers are looking for your business online and while B2B organizations aren't as active as consumer organization, reading High-Tech, High-Touch will prepare you for what is sure to come in the coming years (months maybe in computer time).

From Small Business Trends

Book Review: High Tech, High Touch Customer Service