It's easy for customers to forget to make a payment when they're busy juggling all the responsibilities of their daily lives, but late payments can severely impact businesses.
Automated payment solutions make life easy for both your customers and your accounts receivable team, and they can help you significantly cut your operational expenses. Of course, the right solution is essential for maximizing these benefits.
Below, we illustrate how automating payments in your business can lead to numerous benefits for your organization and your customers.
How Automation Improves the Payment Process
Automation streamlines the payment process by eliminating the need for customers to remember when to make a manual payment. Rather than having to keep track of deadlines for all their bills, customers can set when they would like to pay during each billing cycle and leave the system to do its work.
Because an automated payment solution involves switching to digital forms of payment, you can eliminate bottlenecks in invoicing and payment processing, which frees up your human finance teams to focus on more urgent tasks.
Digitization vs. Automation
Although many sources refer to payments as “digital” and “automated” interchangeably, these phrases refer to different processes, and it's important to understand their distinctions.
Digital payments are simply online forms of payment, which include payment methods:
- Credit cards
- Debit cards
- Digital wallets like PayPal and Venmo
- Automated clearing house (ACH) payments
And, payment channels, like:
- Mobile apps
- Biller websites
Automated payments are a specific type of digital payment that uses advanced software and a series of rules to complete payment processing tasks without manual inputs. For example, a customer can set up their credit card to be automatically charged for their utility bill every month on the same day.
Essentially, while all automated payments are digital, only payments completed without human intervention are automated.
The Top 5 Benefits of Automating Payments
Going digital is one step toward more efficient processes, but automation takes it one step further. Without the need for employees to handle payment processing, you can save valuable time and money on repetitive, menial tasks that are subject to error.
Here are the five most significant ways your organization can benefit from implementing payment automation:
1. Improved Customer Experience
A major frustration of customers across virtually any payment-collecting industry is the hassle of remembering payment deadlines. Customers, especially those aged 60 and above, enjoy the “set it and forget it” aspect of automated payments. Rather than having to remember multiple deadlines for all their bills, they can set the system to make a payment using their method of choice on a specific day each month.
2. More Secure Payments
Fraudsters target checks more often than any other payment method, according to the Association for Financial Professionals (AFP). The AFP's 2023 Payments Fraud and Control Survey found that 63% of respondents faced fraud via check, and 44% of fraud victims could not recoup their losses.
Automated payments via card, ACH or payment services are significantly more secure thanks to advanced cybersecurity techniques like end-to-end encryption and fraud detection.
3. Faster Payment Cycles
Customers who don't have to remember their different billing schedules are significantly less likely to miss a payment. Plus, accelerated invoice processing enables you to offer discounts for early payments that can motivate customers to configure their settings to pay before the deadline.
Put simply, automated payment processing systems get you paid faster and improve your cash flow, which can help your finance department better prepare for each quarter.
4. More Sustainable Operations
One of the most notable benefits of automated payments is that they present an incredibly convenient way to go paperless. Switching to e-billing can save you significantly on printing costs, all while reducing waste. Automated paperless billing and payment systems can help companies work toward more sustainable operations by moving their paper processes online.
5. Lower Risk of Error
Human error is one of the biggest issues with manual payment processes. After all, copying massive quantities of financial data is a highly repetitive task that can easily result in errors and duplicate payments.
A well-designed automated solution that integrates with your organization's existing systems centralizes all your customer and invoice data, creating a single source of truth for the entire company.
As a result, the payment solution will seamlessly transfer data between each tool in your digital environment while minimizing errors.
Why Choose KUBRA for Automated Payment Solutions?
Choosing the right payment automation software is essential for maximizing your ROI. With so many options available, it can be difficult to make a confident decision.
KUBRA EZ-PAY® is our answer. Our simple payment solution allows customers to manage automatic payments or pay on demand according to their needs. The platform is built on a robust microservices architecture, offering unmatched performance and effortless integration with many other software tools and systems.
KUBRA EZ-PAY supports a wide variety of digital payment channels, including biller websites and mobile apps, as well as payment methods, such as Venmo and PayPal, so customers can pay using their preferred methods. Plus, robust security protocols and fraud prevention capabilities protect sensitive financial data from would-be attackers.
Request Your Free Demo Today
If you've been looking for a technological solution that will streamline your billing and payment experience, KUBRA EZ-PAY is the tool you need. KUBRA is an industry-leading customer experience management solutions provider in North America with over 30 years of experience.
Did you know that KUBRA reaches more than 40% of households in the United States and Canada? We work with hundreds of clients to help create better experiences for their customers, and we're ready to help you, too.
Our team can connect you with the best software for your organization's needs. Contact us today to request a live demo. We'll be in touch shortly.