5 Reasons Why Text Message Billing Can Benefit Your Business

If you’re a business owner, you’ll know how troublesome billing can be. Trying to ensure you’re paid on time, keeping track of accounts, sending endless paper invoices out at a great expense, and making sure your customers are happy – it can be difficult to juggle. 

That’s why text message billing is seriously worth considering for your business. With text message billing, your business can send your customers payments reminders and billing solutions directly to their mobile phone, allowing them to pay at the tap of a screen – meaning quicker and easier payments for both sides.  

If you’re still unsure about text message billing for your business, though, let’s take a look at 5 reasons why text message billing could be a savvy investment for your company.

Faster Payments

With SMS (Short Messaging Service) or text message billing, payment speed is pretty much instant. From your virtual terminal, you’re able to automate sending of texts directly to customers reminding them when their bill is due, or else to nudge them if payment is late. 

The customer receives the information in an SMS message and follows the information in the message to make a payment – either by entering card/ACH information there and then, or using pre-saved information. Payment is made in mere seconds. 

Not only is the process faster, but you’ll be reaching your customers more directly than ever before. With 98% of smartphone users using SMS messaging – and 98% open rates on SMS messages, too – you can rest easy that your messages about payments are being seen and acted on quickly.

More Control For Your Business

The ease by which text message billing can be delivered straight to your customers’ handset means more control for your business. And another way in which text message billing increases control is through operating via an SMS Virtual Terminal. 

From this terminal, you’re able to control everything: from scheduling texts sent out to your customers about billing, to responding to queries sent back by customers (and drafting canned responses to send), to the reconciliation of payment to the appropriate destination. Having a specific place from which to control your customer interactions and to liaise with them means that you’ve always able to keep a clear eye on things. 

Increased Efficiency In Your Business

We all know the nightmare scenario: waiting on hold endlessly to contact a customer service rep at a company, either to make a payment or to discuss an issue with it. For businesses, customer service reps on lengthy calls all day means not only an inefficient use of labor but also costs spent on time-consuming work. 

By incorporating text message billing into your business, however, you’re able to free up valuable customer service time – and instead of making single calls that take excess minutes, your reps can operate via the virtual terminal, handling multiple demands at once. 

It’s worth noting, of course, that some customers will still value phone calls to make payments, in which case you might consider still offering them through your business – but with 85% of customers preferring to communicate via text than phone or email, there’s a clear movement towards text payments – so you’ll want to be on the ground floor. 

Paperless Payments

Paperless payments are rapidly becoming a thing of the past – and it’s easy to see why. With paperless payments, as a business, you’re waiting on the customer to receive the invoice, send back payment, and having to manually process all of it – a drain on time and resources. 

With text message billing though, you’re shifting towards paperless payments, meaning not only quicker communication with your customers, but virtually instant payment time. Besides, with text message billing, you avoid the huge amount of paper waste that occurs through using paper invoices – an environmental concern that’s useful to consider. 

Enhanced Customer Experience

If your customers are happy, your business will prosper – and so adapting to keep in-line with customer needs and preferences is vital. As seen above, customer behaviour points increasingly towards a preference for texting as opposed to communicating in other fashions with businesses – and by incorporating their payments into the texting process, this assures them that you’re a company with their experience in mind.

Also, customers, like you and your business, rarely want to delay payment – like most of us, they just want to get the job done! Being able to offer them quick and easy payment will ensure that their payments are taken care of on their end without having to worry about paper invoices being received. 

Finally, text message billing offers a personal touch through communication via text message. Not only is texting more direct and amicable than a stern email or letter, but it also allows your customers to respond directly to customer service reps who can communicate with them in real-time and, if necessary, take over for more direct communication. As such, it’s a smoother process for all. 

The Bottom Line 

Text message billing could be a wise move for your business – and as these 5 reasons have shown, the benefits they offer are extensive. With text messaging here to stay, it might be time to get on board. If you’re looking to discuss further options regarding text message billing, contact Agile Payments today. With almost two decades of experience in payment integration, we know the solutions you need to get the results you want. Get in touch now.