If you’ve been reading our blogs for any length of time, you’re probably aware that I’m an outspoken proponent of utilities accepting credit cards. In fact,
During a presentation of our software to a progressive utility recently, we had a discussion about payment methods. In the course of conversation, they mentioned they do not charge a convenience fee for credit card payments.
Reducing in-office payments
By implementing IVR and online bill pay, this utility reduced the number of in-office payments handled by their staff from 40% of all payments to 22%. Remember, I said this was a progressive utility, so they were already offering bank drafts, using a lockbox for mail payments and receiving online banking checks electronically.
Their rationale for not charging a convenience fee and absorbing the cost of processing credit card payments is they are not creating a deterrent to their customers paying by credit card. This, in turn, has reduced the number of payments processed in the office due to:
- fewer walk-in payments
- phone credit card payments are no longer handled by a customer service representative
- more ways for customers to pay
What office wouldn’t want to reduce the number of payments processed by their staff?
Growth without adding staff
This reduction in the number of in-office payments has allowed this utility to continue to grow while moving from bi-monthly to monthly billing without adding any additional staff. Now, that’s impressive!
Even if you don’t have plans to bill twice as often, as this utility did, wouldn’t allowing your staff to spend less time processing payments be a good thing?
