Firmele trebuie să își adapteze ofertele de plată pentru a satisface nevoile moderne ale clienților (Nathan Shinn)

De la impactul persistent al pandemiei de COVID-19, până la criza costului vieții și creșterea inflației, această combinație de presiuni economice înseamnă că mulți au fost nevoiți să găsească modalități de a-și reduce cheltuielile și de a rămâne stabili financiar.

Activitatea consumatorilor a fost afectată în mod semnificativ din cauza acestor factori, după cum s-a văzut

scăderea abonamentelor de streaming and more people turning to alternative payment methods such as buy now pay later. However, it is not just individuals that are feeling the effects, businesses are also under increased pressure to ensure they are being
efficient in their spending to alleviate the financial impact of the past few challenging years.

Whether selling to companies or consumers, changing or reducing spending habits will be disheartening and worrying to hear for many. While this concern is understandable, providers should also see it as a wake-up call to adapt and meet these new expectations
to avoid being left behind. Firms need to rethink the purchasing options they are offering customers and, fundamentally, rethink their business models to meet evolving demands.

Some proactive organisations that have realised the need for change are viewing the current circumstances as an opportunity to re-evaluate the payment options they are offering to customers to provide more choice for those looking to monitor their expenditure.
This is because providing a wider variety of payment options means they can – where possible – avoid losing customers for which previous billing options, such as fixed-fee subscriptions, may no longer be viable.

The number of different billing and payment options has grown in recent years, which some have quickly embraced. One of the most prominent of these new business models that companies are deploying is a usage-based pricing (UBP) model that allows end-users
to only pay for what they consume.Conform
to an OpenView report de la sfârșitul anului 2021, un sfert dintre companiile care utilizează în prezent un model UBP spun că l-au introdus în ultimele 12 luni, iar adoptarea UBP în 2021 o depășește pe cea din 2019 și 2020 împreună.

Este pozitiv să vedem companii care pun activ modele alternative de facturare pentru a satisface nevoile în schimbare ale clienților. Cu toate acestea, deși această mișcare sună simplă, punerea în aplicare a proceselor este o chestiune diferită, mai complicată.

When businesses are no longer generating the exact same bill for every customer, they need to be able to capture various inbound data on user consumption and/or their subscriptions, apply it against contracted rating agreements, and create a unique, accurate
bill quickly. For companies that have never used multiple billing options, this can be a challenge as they need to put in place new processes which, if not implemented correctly, can lead to inaccurate billing. This both impacts the customer’s time and, consequently,
the reputation of the business.

Impactul nepunerii corecte a proceselor a fost observat în sectorul energetic din Marea Britanie, unde a fost dezvăluit că40
la sută
dintre problemele despre care clienții de energie contactează Citizens Advice sunt legate de facturarea incorectă. This example demonstrates that offering more payment choices alone is not enough and needs to be supported by technology and solutions that enable companies
to do this properly, so they don’t risk compromising on efficiency or customer experience.

Those looking to offer variable payment options and for technology to support this should ensure they implement automated solutions, such as data mediation (the ability to quickly and accurately process raw-usage data), into the billing process. Using platforms
which can quickly analyse a customer’s usage and their payment options means firms can rest assured they are providing customers with accurate invoicing information at all times, removing the risk of human error and costly mistakes.

At the same time, firms should implement technologies which can adapt to customer demands. Prioritising billing solutions which have the added flexibility to react to market trends in real-time, launch new offerings and expand into different geographies,
means that businesses are future-proofed to meet the changing needs of customers and can avoid needing to make dramatic changes as some have had to in current conditions.

It’s clear that companies which want to retain customers and attract new ones must offer greater choice in areas such as payment options. However, change is difficult and putting new processes in place can be both risky and daunting. As such, those that
want to provide more billing options need to ensure their offering to customers is backed up by technology which can manage these new processes and adapt to changing consumer needs. Through this, firms will be able to provide their customers with the variety
they crave, provide the same quality of service and help sustain through this turbulent economic period.