Order-to-cash and credit management within automotive

Personal communication for a better payment behavior

The transformation within the automotive sector is compelling the industry to review its processes, especially their financial processes. After all, altered mobility behaviour impacts risk, the customer structure and payments. It is important to have clear insights and collect data about creditworthiness, payment behaviour and the customer’s preferred method of communication. For example, one customer might prefer to receive his invoice via e-invoicing, text message or WhatsApp, while another prefers to receive it by e-mail or post. All this information helps you to segment customers; whether this is based on payment behaviour, communication channel or region. This allows for personalised communication as part of your service, involving your customer in your process and helping you to distinguish yourself as an organisation.

Process optimisation leads to higher cash flow and long-term customer relationships

It is therefore important to organise your order-to-cash process as well as possible with your customers as the central focus. As a result, you can best organise the associated automatic workflows and credit management strategies. If the invoice is paid on time, no action is required. If not, direct customer contact is needed to find out why a payment is delayed. Maybe the email address has changed, there is a wrong description in the invoice or there are payment problems. Approach the customer via the desired channel, register the complaint and the agreements made and ensure proper communication and handling. Customers appreciate your service and will usually try to pay the invoice quickly. This not only ensures a higher cash flow, but also builds a sustainable customer relationship.