Credit managers finds electronic dunning more effective than dunning by post. Most credit managers (60%) also have a strong preference for digital dunning, according to the 10th Credit Management Trendmeter study from OnGuard. Nonetheless traditional dunning methods still predominate.
Digitisation is rapidly advancing within credit management. There are a host of options for further digitising the work of credit managers, including dunning: payment via IDEAL, AcceptEmail, E-invoices, Z-invoices and secure customer portals to name but a few. The benefits are also substantial. Dunning costs are reduced, manual and monotonous work is almost eradicated, processes run more efficiently and faster and it is made even easier for the customer to settle his account faster.
Study surprises
Digital credit management is the future, and the credit manager likes to describe his department as being (extremely) digital (67%), according to the Credit Management Trendmeter. Nonetheless the same study shows that the traditional dunning methods often still dominate. The vast majority still send their dunning letters by post (81%) and to a lesser extent using traditional e-mail (56%). Digital dunning and payment methods are still only used on a very limited scale.
Digital Credit Manager discussion
Why continue to use traditional payment and dunning methods, when we all express a preference for digital dunning? This topic was discussed with a select group during the roundtable session on ‘How digital is the Credit Manager’ at the Credit Expo on 17 November 2010. And although nearly everyone agreed that digital dunning offers a host of benefits, a number of speakers commented that many customers are not yet ready for digitisation. Some customers still prefer to receive an invoice by post. An e-mailed invoice/dunning letter thereby soon gets lost in the inbox. But participants expect a completely different type of (digital) credit management to arise in the near future. There is already substantial investment in Shared Service Centres which are fully digitised in low wage countries such as India and Poland. We are dealing here with the law of the inhibiting head start. It is up to us in the Western countries to invest rapidly in digital credit management. The question is not whether the customer or the organisation are ready for it. The question is how quickly we can make the customer digital and how quickly we can persuade the organisation to invest.