An omnichannel communication platform is the centerpiece for developing and delivering customer experience-focused billing and payments. This powerful cloud solution gives companies the control and capabilities to turn routine bills and letters into personal experiences that increase on-time payments, reduce call-center volume and enhance satisfaction and loyalty.
Adopting a strategic CX-driven approach to customer communications is relatively new, with many companies still treating these crucial business encounters as mundane back-office activities. Given how important consumer billing and payments are to a company’s cashflow, revenue and profitability, this old-school thinking represents vital missed opportunities to build customer relationships through better experiences.
Customer experience is increasingly a differentiator for both companies and consumers. Four out of 5 customers say the experiences provided by a company are as important as its products or services, according to Salesforce. Research shows that CX leaders outpace other companies based on numerous KPIs, from stock performance and growth to cost and risk reduction and even charging premium prices for their products.
A strategic approach to omnichannel customer communications is critical to enterprise success with CX. Often the last interactions of the customer journey, billing and payments can solidify or undercut any positive experience up to that point. Omnichannel communication platforms enable companies to offer the choices and personalization that add up to the top-notch billing and payments experiences that customers want, anchoring enterprise CX initiatives that drive competitive advantage.
Companies need to improve CX
A full 80% of business leaders say improving CX is a priority, according to Forrester. But they aren’t always succeeding.
U.S. consumers’ perceptions of the quality of business experiences has declined for the past three years, in 2024 reaching the lowest levels since 2017, according to Forrester’s US 2024 Customer Experience (CX) Index. The average effectiveness of experiences fell to 64% while the average ease of experiences decreased to 66%.
The challenge is keeping up with growing customer expectations. Companies aren’t simply compared to their industry peers on CX but to the likes of Amazon, Apple, Netflix and other brands that have made business interactions easy, fast, convenient and seamless.
Omnichannel communication platforms deliver choice
Financial and other transactional communications offer a lot of room for elevating CX, starting with addressing the lack of choice in delivery methods. More than 75% of consumers want to choose which channels businesses use to communicate with them, reported Keypoint Intelligence, but omnichannel customer communications aren’t always available.
In fact, 1 out of 4 consumers isn’t offered any electronic options for billing, according to InvoiceCloud’s 2024 The State of Online Payments. Yet the first-half 2024 ACI Speedpay Pulse consumer research on billing preferences found an overwhelming majority wanted omnichannel choices:
- 60% of consumers wanted electronic statements
- 25% wanted a combination of paper and digital
- 16% wanted paper
Poor billing and payments experiences cause all kinds of business problems, from missed payments to damaged reputations and lost customers. In healthcare, for instance, bad patient financial experiences can overshadow excellent care. Cedar’s 2024 Healthcare Financial Experience Study found:
- 40% of consumers won’t pay their bill if they cannot understand the administrative experience.
- 41% left a negative review of their provider due to a bad healthcare billing experience.
- 38% switched providers due to a poor billing experience
Omnichannel communication platforms enable companies to efficiently and effectively meet consumer expectations for delivery choices. With content libraries, document templates and business logic that automates what content goes in what fields in every communication, the platforms make it quick and easy to create billing statements, letters, payment reminders and other communications for multiple channels, including print/mail, email and text messaging. Consolidating communications on a single system simplifies the complexity of catering to any combination of digital and paper communications each consumer designates.
Why choice matters so much
The autonomy to choose significantly impacts how valued customers feel during their interactions with a company. When customers have options, they feel more in control of their experience. Being able to select their preferred communications methods predisposes customers to engage and follow the call to action, such as paying the bill.
Other benefits of offering omnichannel customer communications:
- Lower barriers to payment. Making it easy and convenient, based on each consumer’s preferences, to receive communications and make payments is key. Billers are competing against other financial demands on tight household budgets.
- Better brand perception. A company that provides individual choices is often seen as more customer-centric and flexible.
- Reduced customer churn: When customers can select the option that aligns best with their needs, they are less likely to switch to a competitor.
Personalizing omnichannel customer communications
A CX-focused customer communications strategy goes beyond omnichannel delivery options to further personalize billing and other communication experiences. It requires tailoring communications to meet the preferences, needs, and interests of individual customers or customer segments.
Personalization is becoming a must-have CX feature. McKinsey found that 71% of consumers expect companies to deliver personalized interactions and 76% are frustrated when this doesn’t happen. Not surprisingly, then, 89% of leaders believe personalization is critical to their business’ success in the next three years, according to Twilio’s The State of Personalization 2024 report.
But 61% of customers told Salesforce that most companies treat them as a number. An omnichannel communications platform is essential for changing that dynamic.
Many bills and other communications already include some personal information, of course, including name, address, payment deadline and specific amount owed. Companies can link their CRM systems with their omnichannel communication platform to group customers and develop more targeted information, creating new and/or customizing existing communications for specific customers or groups that personalize the subject line, message, and images as well as:
- Personalized offers and recommendations, such as suggesting refinancing to obtain lower interest rates to loan customers with high interest rates, informing patients of educational sessions and support groups for their disease or providing vacation promotions to timeshare owners who haven’t used all their points.
- Communications based on the stage of the customer journey, such as supplying additional information to encourage a customer to move ahead with the transaction or suggesting new services and products based on an established customer’s activity. Or celebrating a milestone, such as owning a timeshare for five years, that includes a video or photos of the resorts where the owners have vacationed.
- Share personal information and updates. Utilities could provide monthly comparisons of energy use for similar houses and HOAs could notify owners of seasonal changes, annual events, birthday greetings and more.
- Proactively reach out to customers with missed payments. Offering a payment plan or other financial assistance may be all a customer or patient needs to reengage.
When it comes to personalized experiences, it’s also important to eliminate the communications that don’t fit the customer. That can be the risk of a shotgun approach. Misfires can include sending annual checkup notifications when a patient has already had their physical, promoting 55+ communities to young families or making a loan offer with a higher rate than the customer currently has.
Meeting customer expectations
The importance of customer experience in creating engagement, lowering barriers to payments and building loyalty is only getting stronger. For the crucial touchpoints of consumer billing and payments, an omnichannel communication platform is a necessity for satisfying customer expectations for choice and personalization.
There is a clear shift among consumers for billing-related communications delivered by digital means, although print/mail maintains a loyal following, according to Treeline Research (see chart below). Omnichannel customer communications, then, work for all customers, letting companies connect with people wherever they are at, from mobile phones to mailboxes. They also enable development of customized communications to provide the kinds of personal experiences that build rapport and relationships.
Omnichannel communication platforms also can help future-proof the ability to meet customer expectations. State-of-the-art cloud solutions continue to innovate, adding features that enable companies to keep pace with evolving customer needs and wants.
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