By Dave Dugdale from Superior, USA (Analyzing Financial Data) [CC BY-SA 2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons When you want to improve the customer experience, accounting may not be the first department you think of. While accountants aren't usually in direct contact with the customers, they may actually have an indirect impact on the customer experience.
Here's how: 1. Payment terms for customers and suppliers, vendors, or contractors. For customers, accountants can be flexible when it comes to payment terms, especially when a customer is loyal and always pays on time, or when a customer is experiencing financial difficulties. For suppliers, accountants shouldn't wait until the very last moment to pay them. If your partners are open to flexible payment terms, your company should also show a sign of good faith by paying them as soon as possible. Remember, when your contractors aren't happy, you may jeopardize your relationship with them, which can also have a negative impact on the customer experience. 2. Credit limits are often times an issue because companies are not always willing to sell to those customers who don't seem to be financially stable. But when you find new customers, it isn't always easy to know their financial situation and you don't have sales history to analyze either. Even when you have more information, having flexible credit limits can encourage repeat business and loyalty. On the other hand, rigid rules for credit limits may disappoint your customers, which will have a negative impact on the customer experience. 3. Invoicing isn't always easy, especially when companies need to generate multiple invoices for the same sales order or when different invoices need to be sent to different departments. Accountants need to know exactly who should receive the invoice, make sure to that the invoice matches other documents (like shipping documents), and accurately track payments to avoid errors like invoicing customers several times for the same thing. These may seem small details, but if they happen enough they can become annoying at first and eventually jeopardize your relationships with your customers.
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