To keep your business running smoothly and effectively, you must be able to determine whether it’s worth extending credit to individuals or business leaders in a timely fashion. If your process is too fast, you run the risk of making mistakes; if it’s too slow, you may very well loose business elsewhere. Streamlining and accelerating your application process is crucial to keeping costs low while maintaining healthy business relationships.
There are several ways you can speed up your application process and still maintain the system integrity necessary to find qualified applicants. Try these strategies:1
- Set clear application parameters from the beginning. This can reduce the number of back-and-forth questions and amount of time you spend determining whether each person or business leader qualifies. By having set credit application guidelines, you can reduce the amount of time you spend in the process, thus saving time and money.
- Automate any possible process parts. If you can handle online applications or processing, include this in your system to save your team members from having to manage all parts by hand. This can allow you to spend more time on other credit application process parts and customer service.
- Involve your sales team in the process. These professionals can begin the initial vetting process during sales transactions. If a prospective customer doesn’t appear to be a qualified applicant, the salesperson can move on to save the credit management team’s time. By targeting clients who perform and pay, sales team members can approve or deny applications faster, which is good for both salespeople and credit department members.
- Say “no” faster. Instead of working toward finding alternate solutions or looking at multiple options, don’t be afraid to say “no” to clients who aren’t good matches. Saying no reduces processing time and allows your team members more time to work with qualified prospects.
Speeding up your company’s application process smartly can not only improve customer satisfaction but can also save you and your employees time, therefore impacting your bottom line. This allows both your sales and credit management teams to spend more time on growing business, rather than processing applications.
1 Experian. 2017. “Application Processing: Determine if a consumer is worth taking on quickly and efficiently.” Accessed January 16. Source.