M3/D3: Guidance Document
A customer receiving a request for payment
Speed
Both an invoice and phone call can be sent relatively quickly. When requesting payment a company would aim to obtain any money owed by a customer as promptly as possible. Therefore a phone call would be the better choice since a customer can be contacted immediately. In contrast when an invoice is sent it will take at least 24 hours via post. If it was sent by email however, then this could also be sent instantly.
Audience
A customer is external and therefore any communication should be formal. This can be achieved by both an invoice and a phone call. The individual making the phone call can control what language they use. Equally an invoice can be designed to use formal language.
Clarity of language
An invoice has clear sections which are labelled. These are used to make it obvious to the customer what they have been charged for. For example the heading item description will be used in order to mark the section where product details will be given to the customer. A phone call can be used to clearly explain what has been purchased but cannot be referred to at a later date. Therefore should the customer not fully understand what they are being charged for at the first attempt, they will not have any support. Based on this an invoice would be more suitable for this task.
Confidentiality
Both as phone call and an invoice can be kept relatively confidential. When making a phone call the sales representative can ask to see whether the customer is in a private environment to ensure any communication is confidential. Similarly when sending an invoice, a sales representative can mark the invoice as confidential. The only way to guarantee that an invoice is confidential would be to send it via recorded delivery and ask the customer to sign for it.
Records for audit
A record that a phone