Just make some kind of effort.

[Food Lady]

I just pulled an account I've never seen before and called because their invoice is a little late. I was in the middle of making a message on the old-fashioned answering machine when the owner heard it and picked up. I let him know I have an odd occurrence of past due balance. There is zero collection activity on this acct. He seemed offended. He immediately went into "that's on your end; that's your fault." So I suggested that their auto-pay may have failed and gave a possible reason but he was having none of that. He said they always pay. And it looked like that to me, no late fees. But it's late now so why not sign in to the portal and take a gander since it's your company's account? Yeah, I'll end up going in there and finding that I'm right about my theory that it's an expired credit card but someone who sounds like he's in his 70s should be able to take responsibility by now. It's irritating because it contrasts with so many of them who say, while on the phone with me, "I'm signing in right now" and then "Oh, I'll take care of this right now." We have some great customers, usually bigger than the mom and pop companies which is what this is.

Also, I haven't really posted a customer story in a decade, I don't think. Surprised I have one.