What Unfortunate Messages Do Your Invoices Send to Your Customers?

Your products and services are a key part of making your customers happy. And, of course, the level of customer service and attention to detail that your sales, CX, and fulfillment teams deliver can keep customers coming back for more, year after year. Just don’t forget about your accounts receivable team. They have an important role to play in customer satisfaction and retention, too. Your invoices are the primary mechanism through which the AR team communicates with your customers. But do you ever stop to think about what those invoices subconsciously say in the midst of telling a customer what they owe you? Here are some of the most common and unfortunate messages that your invoices could be inadvertently sending about your business to your customers.

Invoice Mistake #1: We’re not trustworthy.

Imagine the customer who opens up your invoice to find that they’ve been charged for more than they ordered. Despite all the work done on the front end of the sale, this customer invariably feels like you’re trying to pull one over on them. Of course, you can issue a correction once they bring the error to your attention, but the damage to your relationship is already done, and you’ll have to work hard to repair it.

Invoice Mistake #2: We’re careless.

Okay, maybe the unit prices and total invoice amounts are correct, but the wrong products or services are listed. Or maybe the invoice lists an incorrect address for the customer. Little errors like these may seem harmless, but they project an image of a company that can’t be bothered to get things right on their invoices. The customer may worry this lax attitude is a systemic problem that will eventually mean critical errors in other areas of your company.

Invoice Mistake #3: We’re only interested in a sale.

What if, in their haste to manually prepare a batch of invoices, your AR staff copies and pastes the wrong contact information onto a new and potentially lucrative customer’s first invoice? To an eagle-eyed customer interested in building a partnership, this innocent mistake could signal that you don’t share that same objective and lead them to believe it was only the sale you were after.

Invoice Mistake #4: We don’t value your time.

Now, does your invoice template go on for pages on end? Is it difficult for customers to decipher exactly what they’re being billed for, or worse, still where or how to send their payment? Is it hard to access or download the invoice from the email delivering it? All of these details give the distinct impression that your customer’s time just isn’t that important to you.

Want to Send More Accurate Invoices?

Even though invoices come at the back end of a sale, the messages they send can and do influence how quickly, how often, and how much a customer pays you, as well as how likely they are to stay as your customer. Let Tesorio improve your entire collections process from invoicing to dunning campaigns. Contact us today to find out how.