The second reminder email should be sent as a FORWARD so it can use the K.I.S.S. principle (Keep It Short and Simple). It doesn’t need to repeat details of the overdue invoice as those can be seen in the first one.
By doing this, it serves two purposes. It reminds the debtor
1: of the overdue account and
2: that he has been reminded before.
The wording used is still deliberately “soft”
– “hope to”…. instead of “will”
– “help you with” …. Instead of “contact me”
Such a gentle approach is less “threatening” to debtors and as a result, more debtors will contact the creditor if they do have any queries or disputes.
Wording for a SECOND Reminder Email
From: accounts
Sent: 20 February 2009 9.35 AM
To: ‘your-debtor@bigpond.net.au’
Subject: FY: name-of-your-business
Dear Sirs,
The amount below was for a December invoice.
Please advise when you hope to be forwarding this balance or
let me know if you have any queries that I can help you with.
Regards,
Gwen Iveer.
________________________________________
From: accounts
Sent: 10 February 2009 14:39 PM
To: ‘your-debtor@bigpond.net.au’
Subject: name-of-your-business
Dear Sirs,
Invoice for: Your Debtor Pty Ltd
Invoice No: 12345
Amount: $1,200.00
According to our records, the above amount appears to be outstanding.
If payment has been made, thank you.
If it hasn’t, please organise for settlement in the near future.
Please contact me if you have any queries or if I can be of any assistance.
Kind Regards,
Gwen Iveer.
- About one third (33%) of debtors that receive First Email Reminder will respond. Some pay, some make a part-payment, some dispute, some ask for an invoice copy but they respond.
- About half (50%) of debtors that are sent an Second Email Reminder will respond to this second reminder.
- 33 would respond after receiving the First Email Reminder.
- 33 (50% of the remaining 67) will respond after the second.
- Leaving only 34 debtors who have not responded at all.
And all done using non-confrontational wording and at low cost. But the “trick”, as always is to Start Early.
thank you, this is helpful
We have many problems with clients not paying on time. We pay our own invoices first time, everytime so it’s quite hard to understand how others have such a hard time paying.
From my experience, it tends to be the larger companies that are the worst payers!
Thanks for sharing this article. I think that this article will definitely help me to my work. I will definitely use the K.I.S.S. principle. This is a very useful article.
Yes, I totally agree with what you said. I think that it is very important to do or make a second reminder email so that you can collect the money on time and be able to have a good cashflow.This article is very helpful. Thanks for sharing this article.
Very helpful article! I also think that second reminder email is very effective to get the attention of the clients to pay. This article is very helpful. Thanks for sharing this article.