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Our Subscribers Say...
I think Credit Today is fantastic. You cover many practical topics in the credit field that I use regularly. Just one recent example—a conversation on the ListServ about preferential payments—gave me tips that I used in an actual case. The specific information I picked up from this one discussion saved me $10,000, enough to cover my membership for many years!
- Steve Savino
Manager of Credit & Collections, ASSA Abloy Americas Division, New Haven, CT
Credit Today's Resource Directory and their online e-mail forum (ListServ) provide information on almost any credit-related topic you can think of. It is a great way to exchange information with other credit professionals. As the saying goes, "You don't know what you don't know."
- Scott Goen,
Credit Manager, Big Lots Stores, Inc., Wholesale Division
"We've recently started using the ListServ tool within Credit Today. This is phenomenal and powerful forum for gaining immediate feedback, ideas, and suggestions, relative to any credit topic under the sun, all in a real-time e-mail format."
-Javier Vela, Senior Credit Manager, Global Credit Services, JDA Software Group Inc.
"Being a part of the Credit Today online community is like having the expertise of hundreds of credit managers at your fingertips. These credit execs are willing to help you solve topical business issues as they arise. In the current environment of ever increasing competing priorities which reduce our opportunities to meet peers out of the office face-to-face, this is the most valuable tool you can have on your desktop! It's important that we have a mechanism to reach out to our counterparts quickly to exchange knowledge as well as to stay on top of industry trends."
- Victoria Artis, Director of Customer Financial Services, Pfizer, Inc.
"Over the last 10 years I've seen Credit Today evolve from a monthly credit publication into a quality source of information and guidance for the B2B credit community. The website, with its user friendly form downloads, will take you from examples of new account credit applications to bankruptcy forms and everything in between.
The Credit Today ListServ has become the pre-imminent online forum, providing an opportunity for discussion and comments (and occasional humor) from an impressive list of credit professionals."
David Dungan, Director of Credit
Justin Brands, Inc. (A Berkshire Hathaway company)
Fort Worth, Texas
"There are numerous credit periodicals available to the credit professional today. How good is Credit Today? Is it relevant? I always have to read it late, or online because my credit analysts want to read it the minute it comes in. When my staff wants to read a publication before I have a chance to read it then something is working in that publication. We have cancelled our other subscriptions. When you have the best you do not need the rest."
Ron Woods
Corporate Credit Manager-World Wide
Thales Navigation, Inc.
"The newsletter, coupled with the website and the ListServ, are to us, more valuable than any other credit publication, bar none. I try to use at least one article out of each newsletter for departmental training/discussion sessions."
D. Mark Constantine
Corporate Credit Mgr
Fulton Paper Company
"I love Credit Today and read every issue cover to cover. For me, the greatest perk of a subscription is ListServ. I believe Credit Today's ListServ members may be the most knowledgeable Credit brain trust in existence today. I have saved and categorized hundreds of contributions on a wide variety of topics which I refer to often. It's an easy and cost effective way to network and learn."
Doug M. Thomas
Kimberly-Clark Customer Financial Services |
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Why The Credit Department is a Critical Area of Customer Support and Steps to Take to Improve Customer Satisfacton
"The second person a customer will have contact with after the salesperson is usually someone from the credit department," says one senior credit manager. "How this contact is handled can affect a customer's perception of the entire organization, either positively or negatively. That's why it's so important to recognize the credit department as a critical area of customer contact within your company. Make sure your people are making the most out of every customer contact." Here are some of his ideas for improving customer satisfaction:
Know your customer--inside and out. "Identifying all the customers of a business process such as credit, both internal and external, is the first step in learning what you can do for them," he says. Internal customers might include your sales and marketing departments and your manufacturing locations. External customers are the purchasers of your products and/or services.
Define customer needs. Find out which products and support services your customers view as value added, and provide these items consistently. Of course, what's important to one customer, or group of customers, may not necessarily be important to another. You have to be a little flexible. "It's also important to define a customer's minimum expectations," he says.
Learn the process. Another way the credit department can boost customer satisfaction is to identify the steps in the credit approval process that need to be improved or eliminated. "Flowcharting a process will help you identify where the bottlenecks are and where work may be currently performed that does not add value," he says. "This will allow you to redesign those processes so that you can better meet the needs of all your customers."
Set some time-based goals. "See if you can determine the average amount of time it takes your company to process an order through credit after the order has been received. If the process is not automated, and takes too long relative to the amount of work that actually needs to be done, there is probably an opportunity for improvement."
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Meet and exceed your customer's expectations every time. "I think it's important to understand the difference between what you can do to meet a customer's minimum expectations and what you must do to exceed them," he says. "Ask for feedback to see if you are meeting their needs and ask 'How can we do it better?' more often."
Create a vision for yourself of how you can add value to your company's products and services. This vision should include making decisions and taking actions that are in the best interest of the organization, both short and long term. Put this vision in writing, along with a mission statement on how to provide customer satisfaction. Doing so will help sharpen your focus.
Be open-minded. Credit management should be seen as an asset, rather than an obstacle, to the overall successful distribution of your company's products or services. This can be challenging when you're trying to collect a large, past-due receivable and the same customer wants to place a sizable new order with your company. It's important to be comfortable enough to take reasonable risks in the development of new and existing customer account relationships. If you look at your external customers as strategic partners to your business--and treat them accordingly--you'll be on the way to developing and maintaining profitable relationships for the long haul.
Editor's Note: The above article originally appeared in the Credit & Collection Manager's Letter, a newsletter purchased by Credit Today in 2006. This article originally appeared prior to 2000.
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Outlook 2012
This month's survey explores...
- What the top problems are facing credit execs currently, and
- What the top improvement initiatives are.
Click here to participate!
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February 2012
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