Solutions that are well-designed to improve the user experience and drive customer engagement are more likely to drive e-adoption—meaning quicker collections, decreased lobby traffic, and improved time and cost efficiencies for your organization.

So, how can you tell if an online payment system isn’t designed with the user experience in mind? We’ve rounded up four red flags to look for when choosing an online payment solution to ensure your EBPP is helping your customer satisfaction and adoption rates—not hurting them.

When an online payment system has not been designed to provide a positive user experience:

1. It has a clunky interface

Oftentimes, customer service representatives receive calls about customers having trouble making payments or enrolling in services like AutoPay or paperless billing. If it’s that difficult for a customer to make an online payment, why would they? Customers want an effortless experience, and that doesn’t include having to register or log in each time they need to make a payment. When choosing a solution, make sure the user interface is simple, intuitive, and user-friendly.

2. Customer communication is poor

In most relationships, communication is everything—and the same holds true for the relationship with your customers. When it comes to paying bills, customers expect to receive notifications about upcoming automatic payments, reminders about when a payment is due, and more. Even if you are sending these communications, are they clear and understandable? E-bills that are not clearly branded for your organization may end up either in the trash or ignored completely. Lack of clear and consistent communication makes it difficult to engage customers–and without properly engaging your customers, it is difficult to drive higher e-adoption and self-service rates.

3. Payment options are limited

Consumers like to get things done whenever and wherever they want—and the same goes for making a payment. When implementing an EBPP system, be sure to give your customers options. Whether it’s a payment portal on the web, a mobile app, an Interactive Voice Response (IVR) system, or pay-by-text functionality, offering omni-channel options is crucial. Providing more options can lead to higher adoption rates, too. Regardless of how many options you offer, the user experience should remain the same across all channels. Customers should have the same effortless experience making via phone that they have on the web, too.

4. The technology is outdated (or difficult to update)

By now, you’ve probably heard of Software as a Service (SaaS). SaaS is a licensing and delivery model that offers customers all the benefits of an application without requiring continuous software upkeep by in-house staff or a third party. If an EBPP system isn’t SaaS, all enhancements, security patches, new features and updates need to rolled out on an individual client basis—taking an enormous toll on your IT staff’s time. When it comes to the payments industry, there are a few key advantages of having a SaaS solution versus an on-premises or hosted solution. Firstly, it’s easy to scale to meet your business needs since it uses configuration rather than costly and time-consuming customizations. Secondly, your software will always remain up-to-date with the latest security patches and features with no additional maintenance on your part. Finally, it ensures the complete security of customer data by storing it in individually partitioned databases—providing outstanding performance in a monitored and secure environment.

So, is your payment solution providing your customers with a superior user experience? If not, it’s time to consider a solution that will benefit both you and your customers. When choosing an EBPP solution, be sure that your customers are engaged at every contact point, have options, and don’t have to jump through hoops just to pay or see their bill.