Top Service News
Choosing a debt collection agency for your construction business
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In an industry which relies heavily on supply chain and excellent customer relations, having to deal with overdue invoices, repeated late and non-payments can not only affect immediate cash flow but the opportunity for repeat business and client referral. Partnering with a professional, industry specific debt collection agency can mean the difference between profit and write-offs. In the event that an account moves into dispute having the time and right approach to work towards a resolution without damaging customer relationships or causing negative impact to your projects can be a never-ending cycle.
But how do you select a collection agency that integrates with and best represents your company?
When choosing a credit reference and debt collection agency, there are several important factors to consider:
1. Is your business sector the agency’s core competency?
Debt recovery in any sector requires industry insight to understand not only the cause of the debt but the wider issues affecting the trade. The construction industry is no different, if you have been involved in Credit Management and litigation for construction, you’ll know that construction debts can be ‘challenging’ to collect and requires specialist, expertise to get to the bottom of complex construction contracts. Collecting the payments owed to your business, on time, or recovering finance is one of the biggest issues for construction.
2. Is the collection agency certified with a qualified accreditation organisation?
The Credit Services Association are the only national UK trade association for companies active in the debt collection and debt purchase industry. Full members must adhere to their Code of Practice. This provides a benchmark for industry best practice, assuring quality and professionalism.
- The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) requires members to provide a declaration of compliance with statutory legislation covering the finance industry.
- Top Service Ltd is an approved signatory of the Prompt Payment Code
- Top Service Executive Directors are all members of the Institute of Credit Management (ICM) and abide by the code of professional conduct set down by the ICM.
3. Does the commercial collection agency have highly skilled and trained staff?
A collection agency’s front line staff will be interacting with your clients and therefore representing your company. It is important that they have the training and qualifications to manage your instruction. Top Service operates a rigorous training programme based on 25 years experience of working in the built environment. Qualifications and standards training can be far reaching but look for those holding current certification in collection strategies, techniques, and compliance. For example all Top Service Executive Directors undertake a City & Guilds accredited Diploma in Debt Recovery and all collections staff undertake a Collection Accreditation Initiative Test on an annual basis. This test is run by the Credit Services Association. All Executive Directors and Managers of the company hold management qualifications at the equivalent of NVQ level 4 or higher and all supervisors are required to undertake supervisory management qualifications. Experience counts!
4. Is my company information secure and the data collected protected?
In order to protect your business and customers, the professional collection agency you choose needs to operate under strict data protection and data management protocol. The General Data Protection Regulation forms part of the new Data Protection Act 2018 (DPA 2018) of which the main provisions of GDPR applied from 25 May 2018 and provides legislation for tighter control on information safeguarding. Top Service also ensures the data held by the company on removable drives is encrypted using advanced encryption standard algorithms validated by the National Institute of Standards and Technology. The Directors carry out regular compliance reviews to ensure that the company is trading within current legislation, rules and regulations.
5. Is the collection agency recognised by industry and referred by recommendation?
The collection agency you choose is an extension of your company. When considering a debt collection agency, it’s important to determine the processes and manner in which they conduct their collections activity and if it is in line with your own company values. Top Service is customer focused and their collections activity is carried out seamlessly in a legal and ethical manner. Recently Top Service was instructed by SAEMA to recover four debts, two of which were over a year old and within one month they had credited a significant sum of the outstanding accounts directly back to SAEMA.
“Our decision to instruct Top Service to manage our collections was based on our need for a personal, industry specific service with a high regard for our customers. As the only credit reference and collections agency working within the construction industry and a reputable company, we can rely on their discretion, ability to take the time to understand the background of our claims, and the reasons behind non-payments to achieve a successful result.” Tony Seddon, Company Secretary, SAEMA
Top Service provides a debt recovery consulting service, specialising in the construction industry. Our team delivers an industry specific service from pre-legal, litigation to enforcement and operates a no win-no-fee basis. Our service is tailored to our customer needs and is available to our members regardless of the size or age of debt.