3 Things Collection Agencies Do That Kill Your Business

Collection agencies do three things that can really hurt your subscription-based business. Learn why customer retention services are a better option.
Written By:
Tara Horstmeyer

Do You Use a Collection Service?

We all know what it’s like to have payment failures. Whether they be intentional or not, payment failures are frustrating and can cost your business hundreds of thousands of dollars. If you operate a recurring revenue model or a subscription based business model, then payment failures are a way of life for you and your business.

And when you realize you have a serious payment failure problem you may tempted to go to a collection agency. Here are 3 things collection agencies do that will absolutely kill your business.

#1- Fear Tactics

This is a tried and true technique for just about every collection agency out there. They call your customer threaten legal action, and put as much fear into your customer as possible. What makes this worse is that it works. Collection agencies have great success intimidating customers into paying their bill.

But this approach will all but guarantee that you will never sell to this customer again. Long-term loyalty? You can kiss it goodbye. You may win the battle with this approach but you will ultimately lose the war. It’s just not worth it.

#2- They Wait Too Long

Most collection agencies wait 30-60-90 days before they begin contacting your customer. Think about this from your customers point of view. They haven’t thought about their failed payment for months, and then out of the blue they get a call from a pushy collections agent.

The agent intimidates them, assumes the worst, and gives your customer a black eye. All because your customer may have just had an expired  credit card! Timeliness makes all the difference. The quicker you can respond to your customers with failed payments the more likely you are to get them back online and keep them online for longer.

#3- They Don’t Care About Your Brand


The last thing a collections agency is concerned with is your brand. They simply don’t care about your standard of customer service. They get paid according to how many payments they can recover, so that is the only metric they are focused on. If you think they are worried about the consistency of your message, or empathy to your customer. You may be in for a rude awakening.

A Better Approach

At Gravy we don’t do collections. We don’t use fear tactics. We don’t sacrifice your customer lifetime value for a small recovered payment. We help you to develop a sustainable strategy using proven tactics and systems to help you deal with the issue of failed payments once and for all.\

We are 100% U.S. based and we have discovered the keys to closing the back-door of any business. You can recover those failed payments on Stripe, for example, and you can do it in a way that doesn’t sacrifice your brand, your standard of customer service, or your customer’s dignity. Book a call today to get started.

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Do You Use a Collection Service?

We all know what it’s like to have payment failures. Whether they be intentional or not, payment failures are frustrating and can cost your business hundreds of thousands of dollars. If you operate a recurring revenue model or a subscription based business model, then payment failures are a way of life for you and your business.

And when you realize you have a serious payment failure problem you may tempted to go to a collection agency. Here are 3 things collection agencies do that will absolutely kill your business.

#1- Fear Tactics

This is a tried and true technique for just about every collection agency out there. They call your customer threaten legal action, and put as much fear into your customer as possible. What makes this worse is that it works. Collection agencies have great success intimidating customers into paying their bill.

But this approach will all but guarantee that you will never sell to this customer again. Long-term loyalty? You can kiss it goodbye. You may win the battle with this approach but you will ultimately lose the war. It’s just not worth it.

#2- They Wait Too Long

Most collection agencies wait 30-60-90 days before they begin contacting your customer. Think about this from your customers point of view. They haven’t thought about their failed payment for months, and then out of the blue they get a call from a pushy collections agent.

The agent intimidates them, assumes the worst, and gives your customer a black eye. All because your customer may have just had an expired  credit card! Timeliness makes all the difference. The quicker you can respond to your customers with failed payments the more likely you are to get them back online and keep them online for longer.

#3- They Don’t Care About Your Brand


The last thing a collections agency is concerned with is your brand. They simply don’t care about your standard of customer service. They get paid according to how many payments they can recover, so that is the only metric they are focused on. If you think they are worried about the consistency of your message, or empathy to your customer. You may be in for a rude awakening.

A Better Approach

At Gravy we don’t do collections. We don’t use fear tactics. We don’t sacrifice your customer lifetime value for a small recovered payment. We help you to develop a sustainable strategy using proven tactics and systems to help you deal with the issue of failed payments once and for all.\

We are 100% U.S. based and we have discovered the keys to closing the back-door of any business. You can recover those failed payments on Stripe, for example, and you can do it in a way that doesn’t sacrifice your brand, your standard of customer service, or your customer’s dignity. Book a call today to get started.

Start Recovering
Failed Payments Today.
Start Recovering
Failed Payments Today.