What do bees have to do with debt collection?

As bees fly from flower to flower they pollinate the plants. Without this pollination, plants are not able to produce fruit at all. This makes the bee one of the most important livestock animals alongside cattle and pigs. According to the CNRS Research Center in Montpellier, France, bees are responsible for an added value worldwide in the region of EUR 200 billion. In short, the endeavors of these fast-moving insects produce a substantial return. On the one hand honey, and on the other, foodstuffs like nuts and fruit. Without bees, flowers cannot become fruit. The yield becomes meager. According to experts, the disappearance of all bees would mean losses of as much as EUR 300 billion.

It's a similar situation with debt collection services. Just as the environment and the economy would suffer heavy losses without bees, the economy and debt collection are in a similar relationship. Without the diligent endeavors of professional debt collection providers, many companies would be sitting on unpaid invoices and would suffer losses for services rendered or products already delivered. Debt collection specialists help to recover supposedly lost income. In the last year alone, debt collection professionals put nine percent of outstanding corporate revenues back into the coffers of European companies. At 9.7 percent, the proportion in Western Europe is slightly higher than the Eastern European average of 8.6 percent. In Germany, the share of revenue recovered through debt collection providers is estimated to be as much as 20.7 percent. These are some of the findings of the representative EOS survey 'European Payment Practices' 2018, which polled 3,400 companies in Europe.

In Europe, 18 percent of customers pay their invoices late, and three percent do not even pay them at all. The resulting loss of revenue can have serious consequences: No less than 17 percent of companies worry about going bankrupt, making debt collection services all the more important to them. Even if the sector is sometimes just as unwelcome as bees are when you are eating breakfast on your patio, both of them make an important contribution to the economic system. In addition, 70 percent of users of receivables management services are convinced that debt collectors are not just “avid collectors of income”. They observe in practice that using debt collection firms has a positive effect on the behaviors of both consumers and corporate clients. As many as a third of companies (28 percent) that have not yet engaged a debt collection firm also believe in the moral authority of the debt collection sector and the effect it is having on the sense of obligation when it comes to payment practices in society.  

Photosources: Photo by Andrea Reiman on Unsplash