Businesses will need to ensure that they maintain a close eye on their cash flow position. The outlook for the economy changed and so has the outlook for your customers. Having a risk assessment strategy involves more than just doing credit checks at the time of customer acquisition. It requires an ongoing commitment to monitoring and management. This will keep you aware of any issues which may turn a customer from a good to a bad risk.
Making smart use of data requires your business to bring together all the various information sources to ensure you have the best picture of where opportunities exist. In the new environment smart retail businesses will have to begin with a targeted marketing list, and then assess it against their existing portfolio and credit risk and receivables objectives.
Having this type of approach will allow businesses to ensure their marketing is targeted at organizations that have a ‘good customer’ profile. Characteristics that need to be looked for in those include the potential to be high profit customers consistent with the profile of existing high profit customers besides low credit risk and good payers.
See also Improving Cash Flow.