Debtor segmentation (debitorsegmentering)
Also known as customer segmentation in receivables, debtor groups, segmentation of debtors
Debtor segmentation is dividing your debtors into groups to be treated differently — so the strategic customer does not get the same reminder as the one who is always late.
- Divided by
- Amount, risk and relationship
- Purpose
- Differentiated reminder handling
- The alternative
- The same letter to everyone
In practice
One reminder cadence for everyone is easy to run and wrong at both ends of the customer list. The customer turning over millions and paying five days late should not get the same letter as the one who has been in arrears three times this year.
Segmentation is usually built on three axes: how large the amount is, how large the risk is, and how much the relationship matters. Most end up with three or four groups — more than that becomes hard to operate.
The point is not to go easier on the large accounts. It is to let the automated cadence run where it works, and to spend the human phone call where a letter would cost more than it brings in.
Where it commonly goes wrong
- Segmentation is done once and never updated. A customer’s payment behaviour changes, and the group has to follow.
- Exceptions are handled in someone’s head. If the rule is not written down it turns into a series of one-offs, and then there is no cadence at all.