Some of the best advice we could ever give is for credit managers to avoid risk by taking proactive measures — instead of being reactive. What we mean by this is we encourage all credit managers to use the many available tools to make informed lending decisions before ever selling products or lending money, rather than trying to recover once it’s too late. By utilizing available resources, credit managers can learn enough about the people or businesses they are considering working with to make educated predictions to whether clients will make repayments. These tools allow business leaders and credit managers to feel confident about their business transactions and reduce the risks of accruing bad debt on their books.
Experian tools
Experian, a worldwide credit monitoring agency, offers many business credit monitoring tools to safely and effectively allow credit managers and business leaders to proactively avoid risk. These tools are specifically designed for credit managers to have the data they need at their fingertips to make safe lending decisions. Experian’s toolbox includes the following programs — and more.
- Account Monitoring Service — Experian Account Monitoring Service monitors your portfolio and tracks customer performance to alert you when a customer’s credit has changed to give you warning of a potential payment delay. This system helps credit managers stay on top of clients and ensure timely payments.
- Experian Portfolio Manager — Experian offers valuable information for credit managers in a single, customizable platform known as the Experian Portfolio Manager. It’s designed to organize your portfolio into “The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly” and allow you to proactively organize your collection efforts.
- Business Credit Advantage — With the Experian Business Credit Advantage system, you can easily monitor your own business credit score and report to ensure you’re not a fraud or credit theft victim. By knowing more about your business credit, you can maximize your own capital.
- BusinessIQ — The Experian BusinessIQ platform is an advanced online commercial credit risk-management system that smartly delivers analytical intelligence in digestible formats. These go straight to users’ computers and include helpful reports and predictive scores to help credit managers evaluate risk before making credit decisions.
These tools can also help credit managers stay in constant communication with customers to ensure they take the proper follow-up and communication measures in the collections process. These systems also let credit managers know when customers’ credit lines have positive changes, allowing credit managers to be champions for the sales department and extend additional credit when possible. By taking advantage of the tools that help collect critical data, credit managers can use their valuable time to focus on what’s important: making good credit lending decisions.