Where did Angelina go?

"That's just the way the system
prints the statement."

At times, it seems as though Angelina has the weight of the world on her shoulders. Two jobs. Kids and that first grand-baby. Let's not forget the husband (and all the work that entails!)... as Tammy Wynette said, "Cause after all he's just a man."

Meanwhile, back at that business Angelina use to frequent, cashflow is suffering (and not just a little bit).

When the owner looks through last year's records, she spots a name. "Angelina" was a regular. A good customer but not a great customer. She almost always refused the add on sales the staff seemed to always be pitching. Nevertheless, she would frequent the business several times a month. But no more. Plus, she always paid within days of receiving her statement. What happened?

That is when Lucy in billing recalls that Angelina had issues with the billing system. The third party's computer made it difficult to enter individual payments, so Lucy would just bulk post the payments at the end of each month. Plus, due to AR aging parameters, the system would charge Finance fees when they were not exactly due. To make matters worse, it would highlight those fees and tag them as "Past Due."

That's just the way the system
prints the statement.
—Lucy, Office Manager

Angelina did tell Lucy that she would not be back. Now, as the owner had to make tough choices about which members of the staff to keep (and therefore, which ones to let go), that seemingly small (if not petty) matter took on significant proportions.

Is your strategy under attack from the very components that were put in place to advance your efforts?


Jeff 'SKI' Kinsey