Glaze Digital had built up a growing roster of ecommerce clients. When the COVID-19 pandemic struck in Spring 2020, it created additional work pressures, necessitating a swifter shift towards remote working. The pandemic created problems for Glaze’s clients too, as consumer behaviour changed, and the economy shrank. This resulted in a cascade of knock-on effects in terms of revenue protection and credit control.
At that time, Richard and Mark were using the automated invoice chasing app included with the Xero accounting platform. But these auto-generated reminders were often simply ignored. Furthermore, with just 30 minutes in their working week to devote to chasing up late or missing payments, Glaze’s founders were becoming overwhelmed. When they realized that over 50% of their invoices were paid late or under duress, it became obvious that something needed to change.
Chaser’s Outsourced Credit Control service offered a comprehensive credit control
solution for Glaze Digital. After a set up call to meet their Outsourced Credit Controller
at Chaser, the business’ Xero accounting system was integrated with Chaser. As a
standard, the Xero accounting system integration with Chaser took just 2 minutes to
complete. Through the two-way integration between Xero and Chaser, it means Glaze
Digital’s customer and invoice data was available and always up to date within the
Chaser software. This meant a fast handover for Glaze Digital, as their Outsourced Credit
Controller had access to all debtor information in just 2 minutes - and Glaze Digital did not
have to send any future debtor updates across manually.
Glaze submitted around 40 invoices per month, which was a high enough volume to challenge their directors, but not sufficient to warrant hiring an in-house credit controller. Chaser was the perfect solution – a more personal way of pursuing unpaid invoices which provided greater oversight and more useful data on revenue protection, as well as making significant efficiency savings.
Very few reputable businesses are unwilling to pay their invoices. Sometimes they have simply forgotten a due date or are suffering their own short-term cash flow difficulties. Chaser’s multi-touch but empathetic approach allowed for an appropriate degree of flexibility, whilst ensuring that all invoices were paid as soon as possible.
Vitally, since none of these reminder calls or emails came directly from Glaze Digital, there was no need for awkward communications between the company’s founders and their valued clients. The conversations Richard and Mark did have were once again about the creative and strategic aspects of the projects they were engaged in.
This aspect alone made the decision to outsource credit control a huge source of relief for Glaze. But there was more in store for Glaze Digital than simply efficiency savings. As the company’s founders discovered, revenue reclamation was also possible.
One client contacted by Chaser paid an 18-month-old debt of £1000 that the directors had long since written off. Even more impressively, another client who owed £16,500 and hadn’t contacted Glaze for over two years, made a first payment of £2000.
Results like these are tantamount to the expertise that Chaser’s Outsourced Credit Control service was able to wield. Not only that, but relationships remained convivial between clients and Glaze Digital. Chaser used Glaze Digital branding on their communications, which made them feel “part of the team” whilst preserving that all-important wall of separation between the creative conversations and the payment reminders.
Glaze Digital were delighted with the results they began to see immediately after starting with Chaser’s Outsourced Credit Control service. No longer did the company’s directors have to carve out small slices of time to pursue unpaid invoices or try to juggle multiple revenue streams with a host of different due dates. Nor were they required to make the kinds of calls they dreaded – pursuing unpaid debts and querying late payments. Finally, the balance sheet was looking healthier than ever as revenue increased, without the need to hire a full-time credit controller.
In summary, here are the benefits Glaze experienced, joining forces with Chaser:
When humans work at something they love, it is easy to forget that a business is only as successful as its cash flow and credit. Protecting the stream of revenue is vital in a volatile economic environment, such as that occasioned by the 2020-21 pandemic.
However, it still pays to employ a firm but light touch, to find the sweet spot between gentle nudges and regular reminders. Chaser’s specialty lay in ensuring that Glaze Digital could realize a greater percentage of their revenue, on time, without the strongarm tactics of external debt collection agencies (although those are available where necessary). They preserved client relationships by maintaining a personable and professional tone throughout all their communications.
The decision Glaze Digital made to outsource their invoice generation and payment chasing to Chaser was a game-changer for the company. Let’s leave the last words to Glaze Digital’s co-founder.