The future-proof course: avoiding unnecessary costs, customer retention and effortless onboarding

The business community is in a crisis, the total magnitude of which is impossible to estimate at the moment. In the midst of all this uncertainty, you need to get to work. Not only to ensure that your organisation remains afloat, but also so that you can continue to grow when the crisis is over. Curious what this means for you? Then read on!

The global economy is surrounded by doubt. Indeed, the number of corporate insolvencies was historically low last year. It is now widely known that the generously promised state aid and support played an important role in this.

But that support is also coming to an end. In addition, the government is working more and more thoroughly on their investigation into unjustified allowances. You need a critical and in-depth look to estimate what business will look like post-crisis. Which companies will survive and who will eventually collapse?

Perhaps the direct impact of COVID-19 on your own organisation is small. However, it is important that you remain alert to the consequences. After all, what impact does COVID-19 have on your customers and suppliers? Once a party falls within the chain, there is a threat of a domino effect that can also pull your organisation down in its slipstream.

To prevent that, you will have to put your organisation in order. Which means: on the one hand, avoiding unnecessary expenditure as much as possible. And on the other hand, focusing on customer retention and removing as many obstacles as possible for healthy companies to do business with you.

On the cost side: avoiding unnecessary expenses

Keeping an eye on costs on the expenditure side does not mean that you are by definition making cuts. The main thing is that you avoid unnecessary costs. Expenses that can be avoided with good risk management. Think of:

• Late payments or defaults. If you do not work with parties that have a weak payment reputation, you will avoid payment reminders and payment defaults. A regular, systematic check of the creditworthiness of your customers plays an important role in this.
• Fraud losses. In the Global Economic Crime & Fraud Survey 2020, a study by PwC, 47 percent of companies surveyed admit that they have been the victim of fraud at least once. So almost half! A BDO study from 2019 shows that the costs are substantial. The average costs amount to around 200,000 euros per fraud case. Count out your profits when you can remove fraud from your organisation as much as possible.
• Fines. Costs resulting from sub-standard or even non-existent customer checks are also avoidable expenses. ABN AMRO recently received a fine of 480 million euros for defective customer checks. The damage that you incur is not only financial, but also in terms of reputation.

Keep healthy customers

You should therefore avoid unnecessary costs as much as possible on the expenditure side. But if benevolent and healthy customers walk out through the other door as a result, the result is still negative. Therefore - with a view to retention - also focus on consolidating healthy relationships. This does not mean that you immediately dismiss everyone who is currently having a hard time. It is especially important that you form a good picture of your customers: how did they fare in previous years, how are they currently doing and what are the forecasts?

Effortless onboarding

In addition, make sure that the onboarding of new customers goes as smoothly as possible. Healthy companies that have nothing to hide should be able to collaborate with you effortlessly. Not by opening the doors of your organisation wide, but by organising these processes  optimally with the help of automation.

This makes it easier to identify and decline companies with dubious intentions. This leaves more time for your employees to conduct further investigations into the cases that your systems identify as 'questionable'.

Data-driven business is essential

Do you want to cut costs and consolidate on the customer side? Then you need to take steps in the field of efficiency. Without your customers and prospects noticing anything. For them, it must feel as if your organisation continues to run as usual or even performs better. So in the back end, you should be able to do more with less resources. In that light, you should get started with data-driven business.

By automating and digitising you can handle processes much faster and more accurately. You will be amazed at how many tasks are still performed manually today. Even though these manual processes are very error-prone and much slower than automatic ones.

With automation you avoid (unnecessary) costs and you retain the customers you really need to keep. Save by investing, so to speak. After all: do you rely on high-quality company data and are you implementing the right solutions? Then you immediately know which parties are reliable.

Which of your existing customers can still pay you, now that the coronavirus crisis is hitting hard? Do your prospects all have good intentions or are there organisations with fraudulent intentions? All questions you don't have to worry about anymore. These processes can be perfectly automated. Manual interventions are kept to a minimum and are only reserved for borderline or referral cases, which require more thorough investigation. In addition, you are always compliant.

The time has come

Waiting for the storm to pass is not an option. You will need to get to work now, to ensure that you can accelerate growth when the global COVID-19 pandemic has (largely) disappeared. Would you like to know more about this? Then download our Market Outlook Paper 'Doing more with less – Managing turbulence through efficiency gains'.

Or would you like to get started with data-driven customer acceptance, but you don't know where to start? Then spar with one of our consultants! Leave your details here and we will get back to you as soon as possible.