Customers take a dim view of companies that produce incorrect or untimely bills. Many customers feel that a business unable to present them with a timely and accurate bill is incapable of (or disinterested in) producing the quality services and products they demand. The customer’s irritation at an incorrect bill often makes the difference between a "one-buy" and a loyal "repeat-buy" customer.

Beyond customer dissatisfaction, costs to handle billing complaints inflate operational budgets – and expend non-value-added customer care time. That same agent, if not resolving a billing problem, could spend his or her time on marketing, cross- or up-selling, or other value-added work.

In addition, billing systems are normally not biased to "over-bill." They will "under-bill" also. But customers, even the most forthright, are less likely to notice or report them. Studies show that under-billing may be 1-2% of revenues. The effect on an organization’s "reported" financial performance is enormous.

Incorrect billing (over or under) directly impacts the timely collection of revenue. The greater number and frequency of billing errors, the longer it takes to collect revenue. And to further compound the situation, inaccurate billing creates difficulties in knowing the "real" financial picture. Are "billed" revenues false indicators that will be unmasked when customers complain? Will the revenues from under billing ever be unmasked?

The billing error:

• Causes customer dissatisfaction,
• Increases operating costs,
• Prevents "value-added" work from being performed,
• Decreases or delays revenue, and
• Masks actual financial performance!

What a loser situation!

An invoice is purely and simply an "information product." That is, an invoice is the result of the creation, processing and aggregation of data into a "product" whose purpose is to inform your customers of expected payment and your bookkeepers of expected cash. When the customers of that "information product" – the invoice – find or suspect errors, their decision making process is effected (virtually always negatively).

The customer asks:

• "Do I pay this or not?"
• "Do I look for defects in the product or service I bought?"
• "Do I take my business elsewhere?"

Customer Care asks:

• "Do I have sufficient staff to handle the non-value added work?"
• "How can I grow our portion of the business and still lower costs?"
• "Why is turnover of staff so high – don’t they enjoy handling billing complaints?"

The bookkeeper asks:

• "Do I have real revenues posted?"
• "Will there be sufficient cash flow to cover expenses?"
• "Can I legitimately close the books, or do I have to accrue - or worse, do I have to tell the CEO to wait a little longer for financial reports?"

A far superior approach is to prevent billing errors and avoid the pain. To manage data proactively – as an asset of your business. To ensure that bills are of high quality, the first time, and to reap the benefits in:

• improved customer satisfaction,
• lowered operational costs,
• improved financial reporting, and
• timely collection of "real" revenue.

 What’s your opinion? Have you had experience dealing with poor quality data and related billing problems. Please share your story by writing to us at:  info@dataqualitysolutions.com