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The important thing
to remember about collections is that you want to follow up early. Because
the larger the amount owed, the harder it is to collect. The customer may
even decide that their stored goods aren't worth the amount due! That's
why the Delinquent Occupants pie chart is front and center on the Space
Control status screen. You want to catch those late-payers before they go
to the pink zone. Telephone
Worksheet. This list of pastdue occupants has many options. If you
want to call only people who owe rent (as opposed to late fees or
miscellaneous charges) select Only Customers Owing Rent. You may
not want to spend your time calling someone who only owes a $10 late
fee. You can choose to
call only those customers who are 5 or more days pastdue, assuming that a
lot of people will pay a day or two after their due date. You can sort by
the amount due or the number of days late to get the people who owe the
most or are the oldest at the top of the list. Whatever you do, be sure
you call everyone on the list. Too many times we call the people at the
top of the list every week and those at the bottom never get a
call. Notes. As you
make calls be sure to add Notes to the customer account. The ledger lists
every charge, payment, late notice, etc. If you add Notes regarding
conversations with the customer, you have a complete record of everything
that has ever happened with this account. Reminders. If
you call Joe Smith on Monday and he says he's mailing a check that day,
add a Reminder for Thursday to call Joe again if you haven't received his
check. Late Fees.
Late fees should be used to provide an incentive for prompt payment. If
the customer's payment will be $50.00 whether he pays on the 1st or on the
31st there's no real reason for him to pay on the 1st. For the same
reason, you might consider two late fees each month instead of one. If the
customer knows he has already been charged a late fee on the 10th and
there are no more late fees until the next month, there's no incentive to
send that check now. If you're concerned about the amount, charge two
smaller fees instead of one larger one. With NX.gen
you can charge up to 3 or more late fees a month, daily late fees,
late fees as a percentage of rent, and higher late fees for larger spaces.
Please note, however, that these approaches may not be legal in your
area. Lockout at the
Gate. In NX.gen, Gate Lockout and Overlock can have two
different dates. While most areas have strict laws about when you can
overlock, many don't address the gate lockout issue. If this is true for
you, you could consider locking out at the gate when the occupant is two
or three days late. This means the occupant has to come into the office
and gives you the opportunity to discuss the pastdue
payment. Auction.
Rarely does an auction bring in enough to pay the amount due. If you could
rent that space to someone else it is often best to take a partial payment
and get the delinquent occupant to move out. So, you may wish to change
your last late notice or lien letter to tell the occupant that, "if you're
having trouble meeting your obligations as outlined above, please contact
us." If they do, you can make a deal, move him out, and start earning
income from that space again. We have one Space Control user who sends a
letter saying, "if you don't pay within 10 days we are going to overlock
your space." Then he hopes the renter will sneak in and take their stored
goods so he is rid of them without having to even go to
auction. Online
Payments. NX.gen's newest feature gives you the option of
telling customers that they can go online and make a credit card payment
at any time. This may help to avoid an upcoming late fee or provide an
unlock sooner than a mailed check would. | ||||
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Do you have customers
who would like to make payments online? Now you can offer that service.
Customers simply go to your web page and click on Payment. We've
added a Payment Page to our Online.HQ system that your web page can easily
link to. Your customers won't even know that they've left your web
page. A new version of
NX.gen lets you store a PIN for any customer who wants to pay
online. That info, along with other account information, is sent to the
Space Control Online.HQ server on the internet. When the customer
logs in using their PIN, we display their account balance, paid-thru date,
and next monthly payment. We also display name, address, email address,
etc. and ask the customer to edit anything that has
changed. Online payments are
processed through the same PPI credit card merchant account that is used
with our on-site credit card interface. (That interface not only lets you
accept credit card payments throughout the day but can also automatically
charge cards each month. And it's now available in Canada as well as the
U.S.) The Space Control Payment Page is SSL certified, which means that
all data transmission is encrypted and safe for online
payments. Another important
benefit is that, if you decide not to accept online payments from a
particular customer anymore, you can simply check a NX.gen option
that disables online payments. This can prevent an online payment being
made the same day that customer's stored goods are being
auctioned. After each online
payment the Space Control Online.HQ system will email a receipt to
the customer. An email will also be sent to the storage site with all the
payment information so the payment can be applied to the customer account
in NX.gen. Online Payments will be a separate category on the Bank Deposit
to make it easy to balance with the credit card
reports. | ||
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About all the
different email options in NX.gen? In the End-of-day
Reports section of the Maintenance program, you can add multiple email
addresses to any of the reports. Just separate the addresses with a
semi-colon. Then, the end-of-day process will automatically send the
reports when they are created. This is a great way to get all of the
accounting reports to your bookkeeper at the end of the
month. If you check Email
to Customer in the Letters section of the Maintenance program, late
letters and invoices will be emailed as well as printed. Of course you
also have to input an email address for the customer. The Move-in Quote
can be very helpful when talking with prospective renters on the
phone. It can also be emailed. Then the caller will have something in
writing from you immediately. This can help distinguish you from other
storage places they may have called. In NX.gen the
Report Archive lets you email any report previously created in end-of-day.
You can also email late letters, receipts, and invoices to customers from
Archive. So, if somebody calls and says they didn't get a copy or they
need another one, just email it. For Word docs, such as receipts,
invoices, and letters, when Archive opens the doc in Word, simply select
File and Send To As Attachment, then enter the email
address. For Crystal reports, select the envelope icon at top left, the
format you prefer, then MAPI for Destination. You can email the
customer a copy of their account ledger by selecting the Print icon
and then Email. Think twice before checking to include Notes
though. You might not want the customer to see Notes you've added to their
account. | ||
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Have a happy holiday season. We'll be at the Inside Self Storage tradeshow in Las Vegas on January 26 through 28. If you're there, come by and see us.
 Ramona Taylor Space Control Systems, Inc. email: rtaylor@spacecontrol.com
phone: 1-800-455-9055
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