IDEA: Always tell your customers they paid too much or suffer the consequences of a ‘cheater’.

As surprising as it is, some companies instruct those who collect money not to inform customers if duplicate payments were made or payments exceed existing invoices. Teach your employees that your company has ethics and values all customers. The worst thing you can do is collect money not owed to you and wait until the customer is forced to call you about the duplicate or erroneous payment.  If you do not call the customer immediately, this negligent mistake will haunt your firm someday in the future when you want more business from them and question your ethics. If you receive money not yours, get on the telephone now.