With football season upon us, it’s the perfect time for carriers to sharpen their playbooks and set a game plan for maximizing the effectiveness of their billing and payment solution. With the game clock running, here are three areas we recommend carriers prioritize to win big with their subscribers.
1. Adoption
In football, while the forward pass has revolutionized the game, the running game remains foundational. Similarly, in billing and payments, despite advances in technology, the traditional method of marketing is crucial for driving adoption.
Billing is the most frequent touchpoint a carrier will have with its customers. Billing presents a unique opportunity to promote everything from special offers to the adoption of more cost-effective payment methods and programs that can benefit both parties.
The key is to take advantage of your many customer touchpoints with clear and concise marketing messages. Bill inserts, web banners, and social posts are just a few areas you can use to drive action. Carriers should also consider campaigns that run for three months at a minimum, with the ability to update messaging as needed. This will keep things fresh and prevent “banner blindness.”
2. Engagement
Just as a football team must communicate effectively before the snap to avoid a receiver who runs the wrong route or an offensive lineman missing a block, carriers must ensure clear communication with customers to prevent missed payments. Poor communication can lead to significant issues, including higher delinquency rates. Our internal data shows that sending timely reminders during the billing and payment cycle can cut delinquencies by up to 50%. Using a platform that offers automated reminders through voice, text, and email can help. Paymentus has designed its solution to enhance billing, payment, and communication for carriers, ensuring customers receive relevant information and actionable notices, thus fostering loyalty.
3. Customer Satisfaction
If you’re a football team that wants to keep the stands packed, you better keep those fans happy. Similarly, carriers need to focus on customer satisfaction to ensure timely payments. In a competitive telecommunications market, happy customers are more likely to prioritize paying their bills.
Recently, our work with a leading telecom showcased the power of a modernized payment experience. Driven by a desire to increase its customer satisfaction scores, the company promoted AutoPay while simultaneously deploying PayPal, PayPal Credit, Venmo, and Walmart Bill Pay as payment options.
Customers were quick to adopt these new, modern methods, helping the provider increase its Net Promoter Score (NPS) from -3.2% to 39.7% and earn a customer satisfaction score of 96%.
While important, these three areas — adoption, engagement, and customer satisfaction — represent just a few plays within a winning strategy. For more information on how Paymentus can help your organization avoid the need for a billing and payment Hail Mary, visit www.paymentus.com.
David Maddox, Regional Director, Telecommunications
Paymentus
David Maddox has over 30 years of experience in in the telecommunications industry with 30 of them spent working in finance, product management, and sales. Throughout his career, David has held key roles at industry giants such as AT&T, Lucent Technologies, Alltel Wireless, and Verizon. For the past ten years at Paymentus, he has specialized in Fintech consulting, working with communications service providers (CSPs) to modernize customer billing, payment, and engagement services. His extensive expertise and innovative approach continue to drive advancements in the telecom sector.
