| More than one third of telecommunications companies believe their bad debt is rising despite 90 per cent of respondents claiming to have invested more in credit and debt management according to the results of a survey released this week.
The survey comprised responses form finance directors and heads of credit management from 11 of the largest global telecommunications companies.
It found the most significant causes of debt were operational ones, notably billing errors and queries, followed by customer service delays in query handling. Finance issues, such as customers' inability to pay, were the second largest overall cause of debt, with credit processes coming in at third place.
Nine per cent of respondents admitted not carrying out credit checks, while 36 per cent of those with credit policies said they didn’t stick to them and 30 per cent did not use online vetting to ensure speedy stringent checking.
Richard Brown, senior principal consultant at management consultancy SECOR which conducted the survey, said: “Companies should be credit checking residential customers online in real-time. Inability to pay need not be such an issue if this is done at point of contact and a proper credit limit established. With today's advances in technology and customer management applications, keeping control of debt should not be such an issue.”
The survey also found that more than a third of respondents failed to try out new debt follow-up techniques. |
