How Fuel Dealers Can Recover More Cash Without Losing Customers

Customer retention is critical for success, but so is cash flow and maintaining a healthy accounts receivable (AR) aging balance. So what do you do when your bottom line is up against your customer relationships?

In this episode of “Energy Matters,” Farid from Cargas sits down with Tiffany Robertson, VP of Business Development at A.R.M. Solutions, to discuss how fuel delivery companies can recover past-due balances without sacrificing customer relationships.

Balancing Collections and Customer Care

Robertson explains that many fuel dealers know their customers personally, which can make collecting past-due balances uncomfortable and possibly damaging to future business. Additionally, when one person at an organization is responsible for collections across the entire business, fatigue and frustration can hinder success.

Cue the A.R.M. team, which can help fuel dealers keep customer relationships intact while still getting paid.

“When you see someone at the grocery store who owes you money, you want that conversation to be a good one. Let us be the ‘bad guy’—diplomatically.”

—Tiffany Robertson, A.R.M. Solutions

Taking the Diplomatic Approach

Because A.R.M. focuses on protecting their clients’ customer relationships in addition to collecting payments, their approach is different than other collections agencies’.

A.R.M.’s proven process avoids aggressive tactics that make customers feel attacked. For example, during the initial stage of the collections process, A.R.M focuses on text, email, and mail communications and only calls customers in the later stages of the process. 

In the propane and gas space, A.R.M.’s diplomatic approach helps fuel dealers recover up to 70% of overdue balances.

AR at the Click of a Button

For Cargas Energy customers, the integration between Cargas Energy and A.R.M. streamlines the collections process even more. 

Cargas Energy’s Collections Assistant screen gives fuel dealers a one-stop shop to manage their accounts receivable. From the screen, users can see all customers with outstanding balances and enter them into configurable collections workflows. 

When a fuel dealer wants to enter customers into A.R.M.’s collections process, they can do so right from the Collections Assistant screen with the click of a button. And as changes are made to a customer’s information or balance, the updates are automatically shared with A.R.M. 

A.R.M. also offers a portal where fuel dealers have full visibility into every outreach attempt made on their behalf, contact method, and outcome.

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