How to get debtors to reply to you

Use time in your favour and put pressure on the debtor!

Timing is everything when chasing slow payers.
So, use time and a basic psychological principle to your advantage and send your reminder (or “heavy” collection notice) so that it gets to the debtor on a Friday afternoon.
Late.

To explain …

• If you’re writing a letter and the mail will take 2 days to get there … mail it on Wednesday.
• If the post will be overnight (by using Express Post?) … mail it on Thursday.
• If you’re emailing them … send it on Friday afternoon … just as you’re closing the office.
• Same thing if you’re sending a “contact me” text message … send it just as you’re closing the office on Friday.

Why so late?
Because you want them not to be able to do anything about it for two whole days. If they’re like most of us,

• they’ll worry and fret about it all weekend and, by the time it comes to Monday lunchtime,
• you’ll have a good idea about their intentions (or lack of ability) to pay.
• If they don’t respond by lunchtime, they either didn’t get your “message” or don’t care about the account. If they do respond, success, they replied!

In other words,
if the debt’s become so old that you want to send them a Lawyers Letter of Demand, instruct the lawyers to send it

• as a pdf attached to an email, and
• mail it

both late on Friday afternoon.

In that way, the debtor will

• get the email on Friday afternoon (too late to do anything about it, because you’re closed over the weekend) and,
• they’ll get the letter in the mail on Monday as well.

One action, two hits.
Mean?
A bit perhaps.
Almost always.

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