Among your customer base, there are likely segments who have been historically resistant to using your digital payment options. This can be frustrating since more customers choosing to self-serve means more on-time payments and more time for your team to tackle other projects.  

To uncover insights into how billing organizations can drive adoption among these digitally reluctant customers, InvoiceCloud collaborated with a third-party research firm to survey four populations that historically avoid digital payments: those 55+, non-English speakers, check writers, and the unbanked. 

We hosted an exclusive webinar with our customers to share the top-level takeaways from that research – and now, we want to share those insights here on the blog. Keep reading to get a recap of the webinar, including the major challenges that are preventing payers in these cohorts from pursuing digital options and what would motivate them to self-serve. 

Challenges to Using Digital Payments 

Trying to uncover the “why” behind these populations’ preferences begins with their reasoning for avoiding digital payment methods. While there are nuances for each cohort, all four populations largely shared their major challenges for paying online. These were the common themes that cropped up time and again in the data.   

The three shared challenges across all four personas were:  

• Security concerns 
• Remembering to pay on time 
• Having access to pay their bills 

Lack of access is really a challenge for two personas in particular: 

• Non-English speakers, with a lack of access to computers as a major barrier to digital payments.  
• The unbanked struggle with not having a bank account and a lack of funds. 

Security concerns make perfect sense, considering how often we hear about the spike in data leaks and successful phishing attempts in the media. While only 14% of those 55+ and 15% of the unbanked cite security as their main concern, 27% of non-English speakers and 21% of check writers let security fears keep them from digital payment options. 

When it comes to remembering bill payments, non-English speakers are tied: 27% of non-English speakers and check writers say the fear of forgetting to pay on time is the number one thing that prevents them from making online payments. For those 55+, 19% say forgetting to pay on time is their biggest challenge and 18% of the unbanked don’t use digital methods out of delinquency fears. 

For the unbanked, their only other more prominent concern was not having a bank account (26%), which is where “lack of access” comes into the picture. The issue of access was also prevalent for non-English speakers, 15% of whom stated their lack of internet or computer access as their reason for avoiding digital payments. 

Motivators for Using Digital Payments 

We also wanted to know what would encourage these four populations to try online payments. Like the barriers to digital options, there were shared motivators all personas felt would drive them to self-service. 

The three shared motivators were:  

• Security assurances (or helping customers understand that their information is secure when they pay online) 
• An easy-to-use payment platform 
• Clear communication before and after payment 

Just as security was a common fear, security assurances are a common motivator. Fifty-six percent of non-English speakers, 41% of check writers, 33% of the unbanked, and 42% of those 55+ said that knowing their online payment system was secure would encourage them to use it more often. 

Easy to use digital payment options were also a major motivator, with 57% of non-English speakers, 39% of check writers, 41% of the unbanked, and 36% of 55+ willing to adopt if the methods were simple to find and use. 

Finally, all four populations identified payment reminders as a lever to increase the likelihood that they would pay online. Specifically, 36% of non-English speakers and 34% of those 55+, as well as 24% of the unbanked and 29% of the check writers, all relayed the importance of payment reminders. 

Report: Digital Payments for All 

Want a breakdown on how each population is currently paying their bills, prefers to pay their bills, and where each group would be willing to adopt more digital options? Get your free copy of our report, “Digital Payments for All: Encourage Self-Service Among Digitally Reluctant Customers,” which includes all the data from our survey of bill payers from these historically non-digital populations.