Creating a positive user experience is about more than your customers – it’s about driving quantifiable business results for your organization. When it comes to online payment systems or Electronic Bill Presentment and Payment (EBPP) platforms, the user experience is one of the most important factors in encouraging customer engagement. And when an EBPP solution is not designed to deliver a positive user experience, the negative results of this can be widespread.

While many EBPP solutions look similar on paper – and even in a demo – the best way to identify the superior solution is by comparing adoption rates. When an EBPP is well-designed, it will naturally drive customers to self-serve, reducing time that staff has to spend on manual processes and improving the customer experience. Conversely, an EBPP solution that is not designed for the best user experience creates ongoing challenges for an organization’s staff and its customers.

Some common challenges that occur when EBPP platforms are not designed for customer engagement include poor customer satisfaction, low adoption rates, slowed collections, and increased staff workloads

Decreased Customer Satisfaction Rates

Poorly designed EBPP solutions usually have clunky interfaces that customers find difficult to use. This not only leads to a poor user experience, but over time it also decreases customer satisfaction.

Low Electronic Payment Adoption

If customers have to jump through hoops to pay their bills (being required to register before making a payment, for example), they are less likely to make payments online. To create a positive user experience, the online payment process needs to be as simple as possible. To learn more about why adoption rates are so important and how increased adoption drives positive business results, download our ebook, ‘The Value of Adoption.’

Slowed Collections

If your EBPP is frustrating customers, they may choose to mail in payments instead of paying online, which can slow down your collections.

Increased Staff Workloads

When customers have to contact your organization to complete basic tasks such as registration, it spikes call center volume and workloads for Customer Service Representatives (CSRs). This, in turn, takes time away from high priority projects and impacts staff morale.

So how does a well-designed EBPP eliminate these issues? Here’s one customer example that demonstrates just that.

How Design Creates a Positive User Experience

To meet its PCI compliance requirements, the City of Escondido, California decided to move its online payment processing to a third-party vendor. Unfortunately, the system they chose created challenges for the city and its citizens. A difficult user experience, lack of convenient payment options, and lack of real-time integration were just a few of the issues the city faced. The platform they were using spiked call center volume, as customers needed help completing basic tasks such as registration. This created increased manual workloads and headaches for CSRs and other staff members. In addition, no paperless billing program existed to reduce expenses for the city.

The City of Escondido needed an EBPP solution that could help quickly remove current obstacles. They chose Invoice Cloud based on a proven track record and an ability to help simplify enrollment and provide a better user experience to drive more digital payments.

Real Business Results

The City of Escondido has seen many significant results since switching to Invoice Cloud.  They have been able to increase self-service due to an enhanced user experience, expanded payment options, and an easier enrollment process. This has led to higher customer and staff satisfaction rates.

After nine months live with Invoice Cloud, the City of Escondido has seen:

• 242% increase in self-service e-payment adoption
• 52% overall electronic payment adoption
• 21% of customers enrolled in paperless billing

The efficiencies that the City of Escondido has gained through higher adoption rates, auto pay enrollment and paperless billing implementation has enabled its staff to focus their time on higher priority business objectives. And, of course, Invoice Cloud’s PCI Level 1 security means that Escondido’s customer data is always protected.

To read the full results of the City of Escondido’s implementation, download the case study below:

To learn more about how Invoice Cloud’s platform creates a positive user experience to drive real business results for your organization, schedule a demo today.