Leaving No Customer Behind - Inclusive Payments
Innovation in billing is moving at an unprecedented pace. But these advancements are only as good as their ability to serve the greatest number of bill payers. While some consumers have enthusiastically embraced digital payments and cashless transactions, others are still cash-preferred or cash only.
Recent data shows that 18.7 million U.S. households are considered underbanked and another 5.8 million are unbanked. These consumers often rely on cash, prepaid cards and money orders to pay their bills and often are not thought of during the digital transformation movement.
Delivering Payment Solutions to the Underbanked and Unbanked
Regardless of the reason for preferring to use cash to pay their bills, these customers’ needs must still be addressed and easier payment options should always be made available to them. For billers, being connected to a vast network of cash-bill pay locations extends their reach into the communities that they serve.
Imagine a world where your cash-preferred consumers could walk into a vast range of grocery stores, drugstores or other retail chains to pay their bills at the places they already shop. With the option to digitize cash payments, they can simply select the cash option on web or mobile, then choose the most convenient next steps for them.
This includes options for locating the nearest retailer and choosing how they receive their payment barcode - via text, email, or print. Once the customer arrives at the retail location, the cashier scans their barcode, accepts their cash and the payment is instantly deposited so there’s no worry of delinquency or service interruptions.
In the past, those brick and mortar locations were few and far between. But that is changing as billing and payment technology evolves to serve customers who have previously felt disconnected from the digital payments space. Through a rapidly-expanding list of participating retailers powered by the Paymentus Instant Payment Network, cash-preferred customers now have the option to pay bills quickly and safely with cash and receive near real-time digital confirmation that their payment was received and applied to their account.
Serving Rural Customers Better
Some cash-preferred customers enjoy using this method of payment because it allows for in-person payments even in remote and rural areas of the country. Nearly 100,000 retail locations nationwide can now accept these payments via the Instant Payment Network.
To understand just how broad a reach this technology has, 87% of the U.S. population lives within a 3 mile radius of an eligible retail location offering these services. For these customers, convenience helps add to the appeal of paying bills this way.
How are you ensuring that your organization or business is meeting the needs of all customers, not just those who are technologically savvy? How could the ability to reconcile revenue quickly with real-time payment posting affect your business? What could expanding the breadth of smarter payment solutions mean for your bottom line when it comes to on-time payments, better customer service and fewer service interruptions?
Discover what offering broader and more accessible payment options can mean for the growth and success of your business. Contact us to find out more.
