Sending Collection Letters in Bulk

To manage collections, set up a group based on a search for customers with balances past due for 30,60 or 90 days. You can then use the Mail Merge feature to generate a notice to send to customers via e-mail, letter or fax.

For example, customer Mary Smith's last statement showed a balance of $100.00, due on March 15. On April 30, you create a group of customers with overdue balances over 30 days, and she is included in the search results. Using the Mail Merge feature, you can send a bulk e-mail merge to customers included in your search results. Mary then receives a personalized e-mail notifying her of the overdue balance.

To send collection notices in bulk:

1. Create a group with a new search for customers with overdue balances at Lists > Relationships > Groups > New.

2. On the Create Group page, select Dynamic and include customers in the dropdown.

3. Create a name for this group, such as Customers Overdue 30 Days.

4. In the Saved Search field, select New to create a new search to define this group.

   You can use the following filters and criteria:

   • Overdue Balance: Is greater than 0

   • Transaction Fields: Days Overdue: Is greater than or equal to 30

   • Global Subscription Status: Any of Confirmed Opt-In and Soft Opt-In.

   For more information on saving searches, see Defining a Saved Search.

5. Click Save.

   Your search is now saved, and the Customer Group page opens so that you can complete your group.

6. Click Save.

7. Create a template for your collections notice.

   You can create your template externally and upload the template from the template record or create your template directly within the template record. E-mail, Fax, Letter, and PDF templates are created or uploaded on the Documents tab, under the Templates heading.

   You may want to include the following CRMSDK tags to include personalized information for customers who are past due:

   • NLBALANCE – replaced with the customer's current balance

   • NLOVERDUEBALANCE – replaced with the customer's balance that is past its due date

   • NLDAYSOVERDUE – replaced with the number of days since the overdue balance was due

   • NLTRANID - replaced with the transaction number

   If you use the Consolidated Payments feature, you can show consolidated balance information on the template with the following tags:

   • NLCONSOLBALANCE – replaced with the consolidated balance for the entire customer-subcustomer hierarchy.

   • NLCONSOLOVERDUEBALANCE – replaced with the consolidated overdue balance

   • NLCONSOLDAYSOVERDUE – replaced with the consolidated days overdue

   For more transaction-related tags, see CRMSDK Tags for Transactions.

   If you use the Subscription Categories feature, your collection email templates should have the Subscription field on the Marketing subtab set to Billing Communication or another subscription category you created for this kind of message.

   For more information, see Using Letter Templates, Using Fax Templates, Using PDF Templates or Working with Email Templates.

8. Create a bulk merge to send or create all collection notices at Documents > Mail Merge > Bulk Merge.

   Note:

   For e-mail merges, you can generate and attach statements for each customer to illustrate which orders are overdue. On the Bulk Merge - E-mail page, check the Include Statement box on the Attachments subtab.

For more information, see Merging Email, Merging Letters, Merging Faxes, or Merging PDFs.

Related Topics

Using CRMSDK Tags

Sending Individual Collection Letters

Viewing Overdue Balances on the Customer Dashboard

General Notices