We’ve said it before, but it bears repeating: Electronic bill payment solutions rank among must-have payment technologies for businesses of every size and type. Not quite convinced? Consider six key benefits businesses can reap by giving customers the option to pay their bills electronically, whether online using a computer or mobile phone or via text.
1. Time and Labor Savings
Generating and mailing invoices requires a lot of time and effort, as does processing paper-based (check) payments. And that’s not to mention the task of creating and sending out duplicate invoices when customers cannot find their original bill because they misplaced it, or it has been lost in the mail.
By contrast, sending customers electronic invoices–and providing them with a link to use to make payments online, on a mobile phone, or by responding to a text–is a highly efficient process. The more electronic payments businesses accept, the more efficient their operations become–on the time and labor fronts alike.
2. Cost Savings
Simply put, businesses save 20 percent on paper, postage, and labor when they handle payments and invoicing electronically rather than with paper-based billing and collection systems. Breaking it down a bit more: Sending bills online or by text, and accepting payments in the same manner, runs 32 cents per invoice. That’s far less than 76 cents, which is what it costs to generate invoices and take payments by “snail mail.”
3. Better Cash Flow
Electronic payments can be made by consumers and received by companies at any time of day or night. Instead of waiting days for payments to arrive (or receiving them either late or not at all because customers have forgotten to pay or cannot find their bills) business see them clear quickly. Payments are also reflected in companies’ bank accounts in short order. The final result: improved cash flow, because payments aren’t “tied up” somewhere in the processing stage.
Additionally, the availability of convenient online payment options bolsters the likelihood that customers will pay their bills. Again, this leads to a better cash flow and a fatter bottom line.
4. Increased Customer Satisfaction and Loyalty
Many busy consumers would far rather handle their bills electronically than in paper-based mode. Consequently, the wider the variety of electronic payment types businesses offer, the more satisfied and loyal to the company their customers will be.
5. Expanded Customer Base
Given a choice between patronizing a business that offers electronic payment options and one that doesn’t, most consumers will opt for the former. This is particularly true in the case of millennial consumers, many of whom don’t have a checking account and/or have no idea how to write a paper check.
6. Simplified, More Accurate Account Reconciliation and Reporting
The receipt of electronic payments can be recorded in customers’ and businesses’ records without human intervention because payment information “flows” from one system to another. Removing human intervention not only makes the account reconciliation process more accurate; it’s far more efficient than doing the job manually.
E-complish offers a wide range of electronic payment solutions. Find out more here.