fashion
that a dog goes after a cat.

Business is not an affair of simply not losing money: it is an affair of
making money. Many a credit grantor with a perfect record with respect
to losses may be a business killer; he may think that his sole function
is to prevent losses. His real function is to promote business. The best
credit men in the country are rarely those with the smallest percentage
of losses, although it does happen that the man who regards every
customer as an asset to be conserved in the end has very few losses.

Therefore, in credit granting, in credit refusing, and in collection,
the form letter is not to be used without considerable discrimination.
It is inadvisable to strike a personal note, and many firms have found
it advantageous to get quite away from the letter in the first reminders
of overdue accounts. They use printed cards so that the recipient will
know that the request is formal and routine.

Another point to avoid is disingenuousness, such as "accounts are opened
for the convenience of customers." That is an untrue statement. They are
opened as a part of a method of doing business and that fact ought
clearly to be recognized. It does not help for good feeling to take the
"favoring" attitude. Every customer is an asset; every prospective
customer is a potential asset. They form part of the good-will of the
concern.

Tactless credit handling is the most effective way known to dissipate
good-will.

_To open a charge account_

4601 Fourth Avenue,
New York,
May 3, 1922.

Hoyt & Jennings,
32 East Forty Eighth Street,
New York.

Gentlemen:

I desire to open a credit account with your company.

Will you let me know what information you desire?

Very truly yours,
Harold Grant.

or, according to the circumstances any of the following may be used:

I desire to open a line of credit _________________________
I desire to open an account _______________________________
I desire to maintain an open account ______________________
I desire to maintain a charge account _____________________

_Replies to application for credit_

HOYT & JENNINGS
32 EAST 48TH ST.