Leveraging Payment Data to Better Serve Customers
As a biller, you are gathering actionable data on consumer behavior from your customers every day. Card-based transactions, digital wallets, chatbot sessions and AutoPay can all yield a goldmine of insight into how your customers spend their money. Beyond the convenience these payment methods offer customers, they also provide billers with data that can help them dial in on what works and what doesn’t work when it comes to a frictionless bill pay experience for customers.
As billing and payment technology evolves to better serve the customer, it’s essential to capitalize on the wealth of valuable information collected by these advanced payment methods to optimize CX and drive more on-time payments. Let’s look at some of the ways that this data can be leveraged to improve the billing experience for both the biller and the consumer.
Predictive payment communications
Effective communication with customers is key and much of that communication can be done through predictive payment communications. Predictive payment communications is, quite simply, a way to connect with your customers to help them make their payments on time and with no hassle.
Whether it’s a friendly text reminder of a bill that is due or an in-app alert about updates to the bill pay process, these predictive payment communications can help cut down on billing confusion and missed payments. But did you know that this technology can also collect essential data that can help billers observe bill pay trends and proactively use that information to better serve their customers?
For instance, a utility company notices that their customers are more likely to be late in paying a bill at the start of a new year. Recovering from a hectic holiday season, it’s easy to see how a utility bill could slip through the cracks for a customer.
But with access to customer payment data and trends, that utility company can anticipate the need for expanded predictive payment communications and use that information as part of its customer-facing marketing campaign. These campaigns can do everything from increase user awareness of features like AutoPay or installment payments to sharing promotional opportunities, limited time offers or to simply wishing their customers a happy holiday season.
Taking the Pulse of Your Customer Through Payment Data and Surveys
Payment data isn’t the only source of consumer trend data. Businesses should be tapping into other underutilized sources of consumer data like surveys and online reviews as part of an overall customer outreach strategy. And the good news is that this data can be obtained simply by asking.
Using the data collected through payments in tandem with the insight consumers provide via surveys, social media feedback or online reviews can help companies create a much more efficient and effective message to their customers. When brainstorming your next email marketing campaign or digital ad strategy, think of the value of being able to craft your messaging based on verified data of what your customers want and what they need.
How Leveraging Data Can Quickly Boost Your Bottom Line
Companies and organizations that analyze and use customer data can start to see positive results quickly. According to research conducted by Harvard Business Review, 58% of enterprises are seeing “a significant increase in customer retention and loyalty as a result of the use of customer analytics.”
But the value of this data is only as good as what organizations do with the information. Customer data is only valuable when you make use of it. In a survey conducted by Gallup, “companies that apply the principles of behavioral economics outperform their peers by 85% in sales growth and more than 25% in gross margin.” It’s hard to argue with numbers like those, especially in a world where competition is high and any differentiators can make a serious positive impact on the bottom line.
With the Paymentus Instant Payment Network® (IPN), billers have real-time access to a dashboard teeming with customer payment analytics into which they can drill down. Studying and learning from this data can help their organization customize its user experience (UX). It can also help measure the effectiveness of its consumer-facing marketing and communications and monitor key performance indicators essential to retention and growth.
What are you doing to get the most value out of your customer payment data? Do you have a way to take the feedback that your customers give you about the bill pay experience to create an actionable plan to constantly improve their user experience?
If you don’t know the answers to these questions, it’s okay. That’s what we’re here for. Reach out to one of our billing and payment experts for a consultation and demo, at no cost, to see how our solution can help you unlock this untapped or underutilized avenue for growth and reduce your cost to serve your customers better.