*3«pt:'T 



44 



The Weekly Florists' Review* • 



March 30, 1911. 



card file. The lower part of these 

 cards is so ruled that a small square is 

 given to each month in the year, for 

 a period of ten years. When an ac- 

 count is paid, the approximate amount 

 of it, indicated by a series of letters of 

 the alphabet, is entered in the square 

 allotted to the month of the year iti: 

 which the charge was made, together 

 with figures showing the time taken in 

 which to pay the amount — thirty, sixty, 

 ninety days, etc. 



This card becomes a valuable record 

 of the way a customer pays >his,' bills, 

 and about how much he buys of us. 

 This card file daily becomes of more 

 value, not only in furnishing the names 

 of our good customers to be fcsed in 

 connection with advertising matter, 

 etc., but it enables us to know the peo- 

 ple whom we have to push for collec- 

 tions, or fight shy of altogether. AVhen 

 it has been decided that we,, do not 

 wish to give credit to a man, his index 

 card is marked at the tap with- the 

 letter K, so as to be seen at a glance. 



File of Past Due Accounts. 



Fob our daily information as to thi> 

 condition of past due accounts, we 

 keep another card file. .This includes 

 all accounts not paid in the month fol- 

 lowing the purchase. At the end of 

 each month a card is made for each 

 new past due account, and placed in 

 this file, and it stays in the file until 

 the account is paid or charged off to 

 "Lost Accounts." This card shows the 

 name, address, date and amount of the 

 account. All memoranda relating to 

 the collection of this account are en- 

 tered on the card as soon as received, 

 including date of letters w^tten, prom- 

 ises of customer, reason, if any, for ac- 

 count beidg slow, etc. Each day this 

 card file is checked with the cash book, 

 and when an account is paid, or it 

 becomes necessary to charge it off to 

 "Lost Accounts," the card is taken out 

 and destroyed. A file of this sort is a 

 great help to the credit man, because 

 it gives concisely the information in 

 regard to the accounts which need his 

 attention. 



9 Methods of Collection. 



At the end of each month an itemized 

 statement is mailed of charges during 

 the month, including past due account, 

 if anj-; and a statement is also mailed 

 of all those accounts which are past 

 due and which have no charges during 

 the current month. Duplicates of these 

 last are made for the collector. Only 

 past due accounts are given to him, 

 unless there is some reason for feeling 

 timid about some new account. 



As a rule, accounts are given to the 

 collector as soon as they are delinquent, 

 but this is somewhat governed by the 

 customer's credit rating as shown by 

 our records. Past due accounts of old 

 customers who have been in the habit 

 of paying promptly are not given to a 

 collector the first month after they be- 

 come past due. This is also true of 

 the most of our lady customers. We 

 have found it to be good policy to be 

 a little slower about sending a collector 

 to lady customers than to the men, for 

 the ladies seem* unable to consider the 

 business question involved without ref- 

 erence to their personal merits. The 

 collector is urged to secure a promise 

 of payment on a definite date, and not 

 to be content with a promise to pay 

 * ' soon. ' ' He then makes it a point to 

 call for the money on the date set. 



Treatment of Deiinqctents. 



After the collector has had an ac- 

 count for a couple of months and it is 

 still unpaid, a courteous letter is sent 

 calling the customer's attention to the 

 fact that the account is unpaid, and 

 thAt^a check will be appreciated. We 

 > uffij^nfl^ f orm letters, as from experience 

 we have found that it is better to make 

 a pfprjjonaj cappeal suited to each par- 

 tieul&r""c^se. If this letter brings no 

 results, what shall bo done with the 

 amount depends on the circumstances 

 of /the case, the customer's standing in 

 tha'Vommunity, his apparent worth and 

 his local credit rating. Sometimes we 

 ImVe found it good policy to be patient 

 f o^^a - number of months and coax a 

 ctl^tomer along, retaining his good will 

 andNfinally educating him into paying 

 hi^' bills promptly. Sometimes custom- 

 ers-let small accounts run month after 

 month simply because the amount in- 



Don't Forget:— 



SPECIAL 



EASTER NUMBER 



of The Review 



OUT NEXT WEEK 



Advertising; forms close at 5 p. m. 

 Tuesday, April 4. 



Address all orders 



Florists' Publishing Co. 



503 South Dearborn Street, Chicago. 



volved is small. If the bookkeeper 

 deliberately adds a dollar or two to 

 this man 's statement it will often bring 

 him into the office in a wrathful mood, 

 with sarcastic comments on your sys- 

 tem of bookkeeping. Proper apologies 

 are made, the bill is corrected, and the 

 right amount collected. There are said 

 to be tricks in all trades, and this is 

 one of them. Its success shows that 

 the customer had not overlooked the 

 account, but was willfully neglecting it. 



Credit Associations. 

 Our two local credit associations are 

 of great assistance to us. One is called 

 the Eetail Credit Men's Association, 

 the other the Denver Credit Men's 

 Association. The first is an association 

 of retail merchants, the members of 

 whilch send in to the secretary of the 

 association daily reports of their slow- 

 paying and bad accounts, also their 

 new accounts. The association keeps 

 no record at all of a man 's worth, but 

 simply of the way he pays his bills to 

 the members of the association. This 

 information is available at any minute 

 over the telephone. 



The Denver Credit Men's Association 

 is more in the nature of a collection 

 agency. It furnishes us with two fofin 

 letters, which are mailed by us, but 

 with the signature of the association. 

 The first states that the account has 

 been given to the association for col- 

 lection and asks that it be settled at 

 once. The second letter, which is sent 

 out about ten days after the first, states 

 that if the account is not paid at once 

 it will be necessary to include the de- 

 linquent in the monthly report to mem- 

 bers of the association. These letters 

 are not used until the collector has 

 exhausted his resources. If the second 

 letter brings no results, we give up the 

 account as practically hopeless, charge 

 it off to "Lost Accounts" and give it 

 to a regular collection attorney, with 

 instructions to sue if it seems advisable. 



Use of Sight 0rafts. 



When a delinquent customer resides 

 outside the city of Denver, if .letters 

 fail "to bring results, we notity him 

 that draft will be made on him on a 

 certain date. If he does not pay by 

 that date, draft is made on him in the 

 regular way through our bank. If no 

 attention is paid to the draft, or it is 

 refused, we then attempt to make col- 

 lection through what is called the 

 Credit Association. This is a New 

 York concern which is also in the na- 

 ture of a collection agency. There is 

 a series of two dunning letters, and if 

 these bring no result a draft, on a 

 form furnished by the associanon, is 

 sent to the bank designated by it in 

 the town in which the customer lives. 

 Attached to the draft is a letter to the 

 association's attorney in that town, 

 asking him to proceed with the collec- 

 tion of the account. If the draft is 

 not paid through the bank, the account 

 is then given by the bank to the 

 attorney. 



We also keep in our office a card file 

 of all accounts which have been charged 

 off as lost, and which are not outlawed, 

 bankrupt or gone out of business. The 

 card shows in whose hands the account 

 is at the present time. If the account 

 is in the hands of an attorney the card 

 shows that fact. The other accounts 

 are simply carried along in the file in 

 the hope of sometime locating the cus- 

 tomer who has changed his address and 

 disappeared. These cards are looked 

 over periodically, any further steps 

 which seem advisable are taken to en- 

 force collection, and as fast as an ac- 

 count is paid or outlawed, the card is 

 taken from th^ file and destroyed. 



The Notoriously Slow Payer. 



We sometimes get an account against 

 a man who is notoriously bad pay — and 

 generally for a small amount. In such 

 cases our collector is instructed to be 

 very persistent and, if the account is 

 not paid, to continue to annoy the man 

 even in the presence of his customers 

 in his own office. The object of such 

 methods is not the collecting of this 

 account, for the small sum is not worth 

 all the trouble, and often we do not 

 collect the account at all, but the next 

 time that man wants flowers he will 

 avoid us and go to some concern whose 

 collection methods are less offensive, 

 and we are well rid of him. There 

 seems to be a sort of fraternal feeling 

 among men of this style, who are con- 

 tinually living beyond their means, and 

 they evidently pass the word along to 

 their cronies that we are mean and 

 persistent in our collecting. We think 



