Job Responsibilities
My main responsiblility is to follow up on customer payments,
overdues and payment behaviour. As chasing payment is
challenging and never easy this takes up a lot of my time. Add
to that, that customers cannot always be reached and e-mail
conversation tend to go back and forward all the time but are on
the other hand crucial as proof of the specif actions taken on
each customer account.
Most companies, as mine, use some sort of a automatic system
which will check each order request against the outstanding
amounts on the customer account and in case of issues holds the
order. Then it is up to me to check with the customer what went
wrong, when they intend to pay etc.
Many things need to be done with certain approvals following
specific regulations which take up a lot of time as they all
need to kept on file or database as proof in case of issues in
the future.
Credit managment which means investigating the customer's
financials and based on this set up credit limits, payment terms
etc.
Follow up of legal cases, old claims etc.
Month end reporting of overdues versus targets which is a very
interesting task as it gives an excellent overview of your
performance but also of customer and specific sector or market
performance.
A lot of e-mailing and calling customers which makes it a
diverse job with both customer contact, administrative work and
a responsibility of deciding (when necessary together with
manager) on how to proceed with orders (manual release), credit
limits and payment terms which also can create stress as most of
these things need to be decided in a short period of time. And
also because not everybody always agrees upon a certain
approach.
I think this a very interesting job as it combines the best of
customer service-Finance-customer contact and responsibility but
this is also job which requires the ability to speak up to the
customer as they will not always please with the reason of your
call, the nerve to stand between up and say "no" when everybody
else (but credit control department) says "yes" and to take the
responsibility seriously as holding an order without good reason
can make to customer run out of product = shut down, possible
legal costs and more...
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Job Requirements
I was hired because I already had a few years experience in this
specific job description.
The career abilities from this job, for me without a diploma
will probably be in a somewhat other direction, I imagine.
As the next step would be credit manager which usually requires
an economics degree.
Workload will always be big but in our case this is actually an
advantage: just imagine that every customer all over the world
would from now, from this day forward pay everything on time...
this would mean that we would all be without a job as there
would be nobody for us to chase for payment!!! :-)
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Uppers
The final results are the best part. Or finally getting some money in that
everybody was convinced was lost and would have to be taken as a cost.
Or in the long run, feeling the change in attitude from customers as they start
to realize that you are being serious and that you will not bend that easily. And
of course in return even, the feeling that even those customer's account managers
although always claiming that we would not be able to achive this or change this;
that even they have to admit that we have pulled it off. Now that is a great
feeling, knowing what you are doing it for!
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Downers
The job requirements and mostly the endlessnes of the workload
can be frustrating from time to time. As customer will always "
try" to pay late when giving the opportunity. Wouldn't you :-)
That is the challenge, to go at it every month and usually with
the same customers and still believe that you can make a
difference.
At the end of month, we always create an overview as to help us
point out the issues or problems to be taken care of but mostly
to see the improvement which is necessqry after sometimes trying
for days, weeks and months and still having the feeling that you
are going no where with this specif account.
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Lifestyle
The lifestyle is equal to any other office and administrative job which means
nine to five business hours except in case of urgent matters and month end
closure. As you are not part of the business ( accountmanager or in charge of
customer relations, no specific business travel and/or social events are
included)
However, meetings with customer to discuss their financials are common as this
is to preferred over teleconference etc as this is always a sensitive matter
which can be best discussed in person. This will also improve your relations with
their accounts payable department. It will always be easier to get something done
faster when you actually know the person on the other end of the line instead of
never having seen them and just write e-mails.
I think that in any administrative job, a casual and more business look and
therefore dress code, is desirable.Especially in customer and even accountmanager
meetings.
The diversity as discussed before makes this job interesting but also quite
tense which can occassionaly cause stress. Me, on the other hand, prefer this
stress and pressure. Of course, to much is to much but I like a job where I have
the feeling that I need to give a little extra, put in some more effort which
makes the calmer weeks and days that much more enjoyable and appreciated.
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Compensation
This will different in every company but in general the amount
of workload and responsibility translates into your basic salary.
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