For any business, getting paid on time is critical to cash flow health. In a traditional model, you provide a service, send a bill, and wait for payment remittance. When payments don’t come in on time, it can jeopardize your company.
Often failure to pay bills on time is not within your control. According to research, 34% of Americans have trouble paying expenses. As a service provider, however, there are some things you can control, and that’s making it convenient to pay. With multichannel payment options, you offer customers more flexibility, which could shorten remittance time.
Keys to Improving Payment Remittance
To boost payment remittance, here are some key areas to consider.
Flexible Payment Options
Start with the options you offer now and the percent of customers that pay this way. For those that are habitually late, what methods are they using?
A large category of your payers may choose to pay online through your website or within their bank’s portal. While this is a convenient channel, some payers may be hesitant to remit online because they have to set things up in their accounts or register with your website. One easier way is to print QR codes on your bills. A customer can scan this and land on a personalized page where they can quickly enter a payment method. It doesn’t require any other steps.
Others may receive bills by mail and remit the same way via a check. But what about the unbanked or underbanked? Approximately 10% of people are unbanked, and 24% are underbanked in the U.S.
That’s a significant amount, and all those people do contract for services, from utility bills to healthcare needs. How can they remit payment to you? The best option may be to print cash barcodes on statements. They can take these statements to retailers that accept cash payments, such as drug and convenience stores, then scan the barcode. The retailer then accepts the cash, and the remittance is complete.
Incentivize Customers to Pay on Time with AutoPay
Wireless carriers and other services often offer autopay to customers. The company automatically deducts the monthly invoice from a checking account. If you want to promote this option, be sure to include it in the invoice as a callout box. It might not apply to every customer, but you can segment who should receive the message with dynamic printing.
To incentivize customers to pay this way, you could offer a small discount or a cash-back program.
Use Notifications and Reminders
Sometimes people just forget to pay a bill. It may be completely unintentional. To prevent these occurrences, you should consider using notifications and reminders. Set these up at intervals, such as 15 days, 7 days, and 3 days before the bill is due.
Additionally, if the payment is late, you can notify them the day after, which could prompt them to pay immediately.
These notifications and reminders can be in several channels, depending on how you communicate with customers and their preferences. The most popular ones are via email and SMS.
How to Improve Statements to Ensure Better Payment Remittance
Communicating on the statement the what, how, and when to pay is critical. If the information is ambiguous or hard to find, it could impact remittance time. Here are some tips that you should follow on statement design:
- Use color: A full-color statement is more impactful and can improve response rates. This is because our brains actually look at color differently than black and white.
- Include boxes to highlight information: Placing key information at the top of statements with the what, how, and when ensures your customers will see it.
- Apply dynamic printing options to segmented users with messaging about how to pay geared toward those that fall into “risk” categories. For example, you can print cash barcodes and QR codes on statements where those are the most used options for that group.
- Segment the statement: Just by applying some lines and other graphic touches, the letter can be so much easier to read for your customers.
- Modernize any elements of the statement that look dated, including colors and font.
Improving Your Statements and Channels Can Deliver Better Payment Remittance
Helping your customers stay current with their bills can be a simple as enhancing your statement design, communicating more, and offering more ways to pay.
If you’re looking for support for your transactional print and mail communications, PCI Group can help. We offer turnkey services designed specifically for transactional mail. Learn more about our solutions today and why so many organizations trust us.
