By Barnard Crespi
Today’s consumers expect to be able to buy and receive services when it is convenient for them. Consumers want to do business on their terms and in their own time. This has driven businesses to offer 24/7 online customer service, around-the-clock telephone customer service, or, at the very least, remain open for extended business hours. Industry leaders adapt to customer expectations and do everything in their power to engage customers when the customer is ready.
Customers want this same flexibility, convenience, and experience when it comes to paying a bill. Collecting payments is of equal importance to a business as delivering the service. The longer a bill remains unpaid, the higher the collection cost to the organization. Without processes in place to meet customers’ expectations with regards to bill payment, leads to longer payment cycles and higher operational costs.
The 2017 American Express Digital Payments Survey shows that 73% of consumers surveyed have made three or more online purchases in the 12 months before June 2017. This is bolstered by additional studies that suggest that over 20% of bill payments are made over the telephone (when paying by phone is offered). Furthermore, in the healthcare industry, a recent study showed that 39% of patients that chose to make payments over the phone did so after hours and on weekends.
Key to an optimized bill payment processing strategy is having all the payment channels in place to meet consumer expectations. This means having the tools to process payments 24/7 online and over the telephone.
Enabling 24/7 telephone payments does not mean having agents available at all hours of the day, as this would be cost prohibited for many businesses. However, automated Pay-By-Phone (IVR Payments), can help businesses to meet the growing consumer expectation of 24/7 service, increase payment activity, reduce payment delays, and keep operational costs in check.
To meet ever-changing consumer expectations, it’s important to have an omnichannel payment strategy that leverages automation to meet consumer demands, optimizes business processes, and reduces costs while increasing customer satisfaction.
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“Never any issues with you guys! Things just work.”
“Customer service is a really big deal to us, and I am glad to do business with a company that obviously takes it as seriously as we do.”
“We’re happy with the IVR Payment system and it has been working well for us. Recently we also setup your newest SMS (text) receipts and found it to work great.”
“I want to command you and your team at Datatel on the job just completed for Tele-Response Center. The attention to detail and professionalism with which you approached the project was exemplary and greatly appreciated especially considering the several applications that needed to be implemented on short notice. Thanks again for your assistance getting this project off the ground so smoothly.”
“My team and I would like to commend Datatel on creating an IVR application that adds great value to our new Travel product. Your knowledge, input and expertise in IVR scripting, call flow management and overall IVR logistics made the development and implementation stages extremely easy to manage. Thank you for a well executed campaign that was launched on time and on budget.”
“Great team to work with. I look forward to utilizing some additional capabilities in the future.”
“We are very grateful for many years of mutually beneficial business relationship with Datatel and for impeccable customer service we have received during these years.”
“We, Standard Life, very much appreciated Datatel’s expertise, knowledge and support as we worked through the development and implementation stages. Our Clients appreciate the simplicity of the capability, while gathering very valuable feedback. Thanks for making this a very positive experience.”
“This was one of the best implementations I have been a part of. The communication was excellent and everything was responded to and dealt with swiftly. A real pleasure. We are looking forward to the impact this will have on our patient payments! Thank you!”
