Now that you have a website (you do have a website don’t you..? If not, please take a look at my first issue here), it’s time to see if your website can do more for you…
If you accept payments online, you have a reason for your customers to return to your website, providing additional opportunities to communicate your message to your customers. There are many third-party options available for accepting payments online, but today let’s focus on the advantages of having a fully integrated online bill pay and inquiry solution.
Some of the advantages of a fully integrated online bill pay solution, such as WebPay, over generic, third-party solutions are:
Customer profiles
Your customer creates a profile that is accessible using a unique username and password. Once an account is successfully linked to the profile, there is no need for your customer to remember the account number to view or pay their bill online. In addition, multiple accounts can be linked to one profile.
Billing and usage history viewable online
With a fully integrated online bill pay and inquiry system, your customer can view their billing history and usage history online. I have had one customer tell me that they no longer send billing history reports to their customers. Instead, they direct customers to the website to view their history online. Ideally, once your customers learn that they can go to your website to view their account balance or check their due date, calls to your office decrease and the productivity of your customer service staff increases.
Payments reflected in real time
With WebPay, payments are logged in Cash Collections in real time – there is no need to enter or import payments. Online payments show up immediately as unposted payments, just as if they were taken over the counter. Additionally, your customer sees the payment reflected on their account as soon as they return to the account summary screen. There is no need to check back the next day to see if the payment has posted to their account.
Reconnect service orders
If the account is off for non-payment, a reconnect service order can be automatically generated, ensuring that your customer gets turned back on as soon as possible. In addition, if you offer after hours reconnects, WebPay can send an e-mail to the service technician responsible for completing the reconnection.
As you can see, there are many advantages to a fully integrated online bill pay and inquiry solution over a generic third party solution.
