Originally published in
Reprinted with permission

Focus on Customer Service to
Improve A/P Dept. Productivity

"You are all probably wondering what customer service has to do with accounts payable," began Bank of Boston’s Steve Monaco at RECAP’s Enhancing Accounts Payable Operations conference. As the crowd nodded in agreement, he asked how many audience members had heard the following questions:

• Where is my check?
• Where is my travel reimbursement?
• Why does it take more than 90 days to get something paid? Are you losing everything?
• Why can’t I get anyone on the phone?
• Why doesn’t anyone return my calls?

While some might think that these are productivity issues, not customer service concerns, they are wrong. Productivity has a direct impact on customer service; in fact, low productivity will necessitate more customer service.

Perception vs. Reality

An unfortunate fact of life is that practically speaking, perception may as well be reality when it comes to accounts payable’s productivity. "It is unlikely," says Monaco, "that you are really taking more than 90 days to process most of your invoices or are losing every other invoice and throwing the remaining ones in the trash," but if your customers (both internal and external) perceive this as reality, you must control their perception.

Perception Control

Controlling others’ mistaken assumptions regarding accounts payable is crucial if you want to make the department a success and advance your own career. Monaco notes that this change in perception will not happen overnight, but others’ views will gradually become more favorable. First, accounts payable managers should acknowledge that there may be internal productivity issues. Then, communicate the reality quickly, efficiently, and accurately.

However, before perceptions will change, you must address internal productivity. Monaco recommends the following approaches:

• Take the customer and vendor calls away from processing clerks to remove that excuse for poor productivity. If they are not answering phones and handling vendor inquiries, they should have time to get their work done.
• Set standards for performance, measure it regularly and take corrective action to achieve the department goals.
• Centralize customer and vendor calls into one unit. "This," says Monaco, "ensures consistent and accurate information outside the department.
• Set up a Payment Hotline that is always covered. "this eliminates the ‘I don’t know who to call’ and ‘I can never get anyone, only voice mail, and no one ever returns my calls’ complaints," he says.
• Manage the vendors and the amount of information you are willing to provide.

Managing Vendor Relations

Many accounts payable staffers find themselves losing time because of vendor questions. Few stop and ask themselves, "Why am I doing this?" or more important, "Should I be doing this?" Monaco recommends taking a proactive approach with vendors. Specifically, he suggests:

• Allowing calls only after 45 days. Don’t track when an invoice will be paid if it is before the due date.
• Do not review statements for debit invoices—only credits.
• Don’t forget: "YOU ARE THE CUSTOMER."

Accounts Payable Advantages

"So," you ask, "how does this help accounts payable?" Monaco delineates the following benefits for the department:

• Processing clerks no longer deal with calls from vendors and thus their productivity will increase.
• Tracking the processing clerks enables the managers to measure productivity and standards. Individual productivity usually increases when it is measured.
• Customers’ confusion and frustration is eliminated when they have one place to call.
• If you expand into Interactive Voice Response (expensive) and fax-server, you can provide greater efficiencies to the company and the vendor.

Monaco reports that accounts payable departments that take a proactive customer service approach can, over time, begin to exceed expectations. He emphasizes the importance of communicating and marketing the customer service and departmental reality to other departments. Accounts payable professionals who follow his guidance will find that eventually they, too, can change accounts payable’s image in their own company.

"Focus on Customer Service to Improve A/P Dept. Productivity" ©1998 Institute of Management and Administration, Inc. For subscription information call (212) 244-0360 or send e-mail to SUBSERVE@IOMA.COM

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