Inflation and shrinkflation have been in the news a lot lately. Paying more for less is everywhere we look, and no one seems too happy about it.
There is, however, at least one exception to this trend: Blue Book members are now getting more service for significantly less cost.
In this article we’ll discuss a relatively new (as of late 2023) free service called Courtesy Contacts and new pricing introduced in 2024 for Blue Book’s traditional collection assistance services.
Together with our Trading & Transportation Guidelines and our Claims Activity Tables(or “C.A.T.”), we feel the Trading Assistance services offered to members are now stronger than ever—we hope you’ll agree!
Courtesy Contacts
Courtesy Contacts may be thought of as ‘nudges’ that members can use to encourage their past-due accounts to pay invoices without taking the more significant step of opening a collection.
When a user sends a Courtesy Contact, the past due account receives an email from Blue Book Services that reads:
Dear __________:
Although no claim has been filed at this time, _____________ has
asked us to send you a note regarding their invoice number(s)
__________ dated __________.
Because one or more of these invoices appears to be past-due,
we ask that you please “reply all” to this email and provide
_______________ and Blue Book with a status update.
Again, no claim has been filed, this is not a credit rating event
at this time, but we do encourage you to attempt to resolve
this matter as soon as possible.
Thank you,
Trading Assistance Team
Blue Book Services
Courtesy Contacts are “courteous” because they do not appear in the Claims Activity Table or the Credit Sheet (as claims do when unpaid).
But Courtesy Contacts give a customer another opportunity to resolve the matter before placing the account for collection. So far, Courtesy Contacts have been very effective, with most users receiving payment without needing to place the account for collection.
Collection Assistance
Blue Book’s collection and dispute resolution services have been a popular members-only tool for decades. When debtors get overextended, they don’t stop paying everyone. They make choices.
And Bue Book members that file meritorious collections tend to get paid faster, in part, because open collections appear in the Claims Activity Tables maintained for all firms listed in the Blue Book.
While our fees have always been low, they’re even lower now, ranging from 0 to 10 percent of the amount recovered.
For instance, as shown in the table below, a claimant with a Standard-level membership pays just 5 percent of the amount it recovers—no charge if there’s no recovery—and just 2 percent of the amount recovered if the claimant submits accounts receivable (A/R) aging information to our Ratings group.
And, no, your eyes aren’t deceiving you! Premium and Enterprise-level members who are A/R aging submitters enjoy complimentary service.
Why do we do this? Well, first we recognize that collection and dispute resolution services are key elements of Blue Book membership.
Members rely on these services to resolve disputes and clean up slow-pay accounts, and we don’t want to see the cost of the services eat up the entire margin claimants have built into the original transaction.
And second, just as important, the data from collection activity helps populate the Claims Activity Tables and inform Blue Book ratings and scores. Supporting your credit extension decisions is, of course, at the core of what Blue Book Services is all about.
Three Bites at the Apple
Not sure of the best way to recover from a past-due account?
Keep in mind that sending a Courtesy Contact or opening a collection with Blue Book does not bar you from later pursing your claim through the USDA Perishable Agricultural Commodities Act (PACA)—just keep an eye on the nine-month statute of limitations—or through a third-party collection agency and/or legal channels, which we can refer you to.
In essence, members now get three bites at the apple: Bite #1: send a Courtesy Contact; Bite #2: open a Blue Book claim; and Bite #3: pursue your claim through PACA or an outside collection agency and/or legal channels.
Please let us know if you have questions or comments on how we can improve our Trading Assistance services. Thank you.
This Trading Assistance column ran in the July/August issue of Produce Blueprints magazine. To read the digital edition of the issue, click here.
