An effective utility payment solution is critical for managing recurring payments that are frequent and repetitive. It also requires a strong account receivables management process and advanced features for invoice tracking, customer retention, and revenue forecasting.
Customers appreciate digital billing solutions that provide a secure and convenient experience. These include a self-service portal that allows them to view real-time balances and smart meter readings as well as purchase add-ons and redeem vouchers, bonuses, or loyalty points.
Simplify Payments
Customers expect the same digital convenience they get from their favorite retailers and service providers when paying their utility bills. A modern payment solution can enable a seamless, easy-to-navigate bill payment experience across all digital channels, from desktops to mobile devices.
When a customer makes a payment, the transaction is entered into Oracle FLEXCUBE against a product that you have defined. A product can be a service, facility or scheme that your bank offers to its customers. For example, a utility payments product could be defined to process payments in favour of a specific utility provider institution such as electricity charges, with accounting details, charges and rates specified for that utility provider.
Utility payments occur repeatedly at regular intervals and require multiple third-party payment solutions, making them challenging to reconcile. A fully integrated EBPP solution can simplify these processes through a single management platform. This also ensures that your customers’ sensitive payment data is protected and secure in a PCI compliant way.
Automate Reconciliation
Payment reconciliation enables your business to ensure its internal records of payments owed match the transactions that appear on statements from banks, credit cards and other financial institutions. This enables an accurate view of cash inflows and outflows to support informed decision-making and drive business growth.
Utility payments are typically made across multiple third-party vendors, each with their own billing schedules. An EBPP solution can automate the process of reconciling these payments to eliminate manual steps and ensure that a company’s books are up-to-date and accurate.
In Oracle FLEXCUBE, a product is a set of accounting details, rates and charges that can be maintained for a particular kind of transaction. For example, a product for processing utility payments can be defined with the UP Product Definition screen that you invoke by typing UPPRDMN in the application toolbar. You can specify all the basic attributes of a product with this screen and also associate them with management reporting (MIS) details.
Deliver a Modern Customer Experience
As technology has streamlined customers’ interactions with retailers and service providers, they are looking for the same convenience in their experiences with their utility companies. With the right EBPP solution, utility companies can deliver a seamless bill payment experience that’s optimized for each device and digital channel.
A flexible EBPP platform allows you to offer the types of payment methods consumers prefer and enable them to pay when they want, not just how they like. Offering multiple ways to pay also encourages auto-payment adoption, increases paperless billing enrollment, and improves overall payment reliability.
A centralized customer management system makes it easy for your team to create personalized content that communicates with customers at the right time and in the right way. Insights from conversations with your customers are used to create relevant offers and messages that increase satisfaction and retention. For example, encouraging customers to conserve energy by sending personalized messages based on their usage patterns.
Give Customers Flexibility
Utility bills aren’t a luxury people can afford to ignore. Whether it’s for electricity, water, waste services or gas consumption, they are an essential living expense that must be paid on time to avoid service interruption and maintain good customer relationships.
To help ensure timely payments, it’s important to provide customers with a variety of payment options. Giving customers the ability to make payments in a way that fits their lifestyle and budget helps reduce missed payments and payment failures.
Providing many payment options also encourages paperless billing adoption and increases the likelihood of on-time payments. To accommodate these needs, a robust utility payment solution enables eStatements and text-to-pay functionality as well as a secure hosted payment page that allows for online or mobile payments. It also stores credit card information safely so clients can easily pay recurring bills with one-click. This improves collection, customer satisfaction and operational savings for utilities. It also complies with financial regulations and standards that are unique to the utility industry.