Does anyone have any advice on how to handle a customer who has gone radio silent without paying their bill?
We finished the project and had a few punch list items to finish. The homeowner is not returning my calls to schedule the return date and they have an outstanding balance.
This is a new issue for us so we feel a little unsure how to proceed. We'd love some ideas!
I would give some time out of respect and compassion. You never know what people are dealing with in their lives.
After about a week or so of no contact it may be time to knock on their door in the evening one day when you think they would be home. Start with being respectful and understanding that times could be tough, but also stern in that you would like to be paid for the work you have completed.
Great reminder! Patience, compassion and respect are all things that will bring about the best outcome!
This hasn't been an issue for me in years, and it's because of how I structured payments from the start — every client either prepays or has a card on file that gets charged after each visit. No invoice chasing, no awkward follow-up calls.
I'm in lawn care, so I chose the industry partly because the model works cleanly this way. Service is done, card gets charged, done. Occasionally a card expires or gets cancelled — I send a notice and it gets resolved quickly. But the exposure on any single treatment is small enough that it's never a real problem.
If you're in a trade where larger project balances are normal, I get that this is harder to enforce. But if there's any way to move toward deposits or card-on-file, it eliminates the problem entirely rather than managing it after the fact.
Been there. What's helped me is looking at a client's payment history before assuming the worst — some clients are just slow but always come through, others are actual risk signals. I built a small read-only tool for Jobber (staycovered.ca) that looks at each client's past payment behavior and flags which outstanding invoices are genuinely likely to be a problem versus just running late as usual. Not a professional dev, just built it for my own use with AI tools. Happy to share more if it'd help anyone else dealing with this.
A) make sure you have multiple forms of communication for the client with their prefered form of communication.
B) We set the expectation for payment upon completion of the punch list and make sure the client is there to do a walkthrough with the foreman or manager (holds more weight).
C) If they stand us up, we communicate (document) that the item's they requested were completed and we need to reschedule a walkthrough.
D) After two touch points in the first week, we move to daily so we can wrap up the project.
E) If they don't want to pay, they will continue to find "items" that they aren't happy with which you may want to put a clause in your contracts regarding subjectivity and cosmetic preferences. If it's installed/performed professionally then it comes down to personal opinion.
F) if they still won't way, set a record of documented visits and work to please the h.o. and then move to filing a lien. You will want to prove that you attempted to resolve any and all issues in a timely fashion. Consult with an attorney in this stage to help with this process. Time is ticking on your ability to file a lien
