How Ritchey Metals Uses Creditsafe to Make Confident Credit Decisions and Support Customer Relationships

For Ritchey Metals, strong customer relationships and careful credit management go hand in hand. The business wants to work with new customers and support larger contracts, but it also needs to understand whether those customers are likely to pay on time.

In the metals industry, late payments have a direct financial impact. Prices move daily, and extending credit means committing working capital to substantial shipments of material.

“Every day you’re late with your net terms, it costs us money,” explains Cheryl Walge at Ritchey Metals.  

Before setting payment terms or approving a line of credit, Cheryl needs a clear picture of the business involved. That includes its credit scores, reported payment information, years in business, leadership changes, and connections to other companies.

The same scrutiny applies to potential vendors. When considering suppliers for projects, Cheryl needs to identify warning signs before bringing them into the business.

However, finding the right information needed to be straightforward. When evaluating other providers, Cheryl found that the cost and complexity exceeded what Ritchey Metals required.

“I need to get in, get out, and have a decision very quickly,” she explains. “I don’t have time to weed through some of the stuff that’s just irrelevant to what I’m looking at.”

Ritchey Metals needed a solution that could:

• Provide accessible credit information on prospective customers and vendors
• Support decisions on credit limits, payment terms, and discounts
• Flag changes that warranted attention from the sales team
• Deliver useful insights quickly and at an appropriate cost

Using Creditsafe’s business credit reports, Ritchey Metals can review prospective customers early in the sales process. As the internal sales team develops leads, Cheryl runs reports to understand the businesses behind those opportunities.

She reviews credit scores alongside company background information, including years in business, leadership, affiliations, and reported payment data. The findings are shared with the sales team and help determine the payment terms and credit line Ritchey Metals will offer.

This allows the company to take a flexible approach to new business. Where the information indicates greater risk, Ritchey Metals may require prepayment for initial shipments. Where positive scores support the decision, the company can consider longer terms or substantial discounts for larger contracts.

“There are clear signs of, 'yes, we want to do business, but you’re definitely going to be prepay,'” says Cheryl. 

Rather than treating every prospect the same way, the team can structure a relationship around the information available. Limited information also becomes a reason for further discussion and relationship building, rather than an automatic assumption that a company is a poor prospect. 

That process works alongside Ritchey Metals’ personal approach to customer service. Good relationships with customers is a key pillar of Ritchey Metals' business, which means even difficult conversations about terms and payments need to be handled delicately.  Cheryl partners with the sales team to explain account requirements and changes to terms, helping customers understand the decisions being made.

“We usually can, based on the things that we’re seeing, work something out that everybody’s comfortable with,” she explains.

Creditsafe’s domestic monitoring adds ongoing visibility. Cheryl receives daily reports that help her identify developments requiring attention and alert the relevant salesperson. 

Monitoring also helps the team recognize positive changes. If a prospect’s scores improve, that information can support a fresh look at an opportunity the business had previously been uncertain about.

The reports help Ritchey Metals match its commercial approach to each customer’s risk profile. The business can consider attractive terms for stronger prospects while using prepayment or more cautious credit arrangements where appropriate.

Cheryl also credits this approach with helping the company avoid pursuing collections by addressing risk earlier in the relationship.

Daily monitoring supports those decisions as market conditions change. With smaller casting businesses closing and larger customers continuing to grow, understanding the companies behind each opportunity helps Ritchey Metals decide where to focus its sales efforts.

Creditsafe has helped Ritchey Metals:

• Complete credit reviews in minutes
• Set payment terms and credit limits based on customer risk
• Assess when discounts and longer terms are appropriate
• Identify warning signs in potential customers and vendors
• Track credit changes through daily monitoring reports
• Support informed conversations between sales, finance, and customers

The information needed to make credit decisions. When Master Electronics evaluated alternative credit reporting providers, the team selected Creditsafe based on the information it could access. Stephanie recalls that the information was more readily available and provided what the team was looking for.

Fast access to credit information. Rather than waiting for reports, Stephanie can access the information she needs when a new credit application arrives. That speed is one of the reasons Master Electronics continues to use Creditsafe.

A practical tool for consistent decision-making. Check & Decide is now used on almost every credit report Stephanie pulls. It helps the team assess applications against its credit criteria, identify potential red flags, and determine when a deeper investigation is necessary.

Ongoing visibility into customer risk. Monitoring alerts give Stephanie a reason to revisit an account when something changes, helping the team compare new credit information against the customer’s payment behavior with Master Electronics.

International credit intelligence. As Master Electronics sees more international business, Creditsafe reports provide an additional source of information the team can use alongside trade references when evaluating customers in markets where credit decisions can be more complex.