Transactions - orders and payments - are right at the heart of any customer-supplier relationship. An organisation should ensure a smooth cash flow by encouraging customers to buy its goods and to settle invoices in a timely manner.
Companies also want to start streamlining their processes by removing as much paper out of the equation as they can. Once customers are paying online, they can use the company's online portal to look up and print their own invoices and receipts, rather than the company needing to post these documents every month.
What's more, online payments can be easily tracked and reconciled without needing an army of administrators. Managing cash and cheques is an unnecessary headache when there are so many clients who prefer the simplicity of paying online.
From the customer's point of view, convenience is of paramount importance. He or she wants to be able to pay quickly, easily and accurately, as well as keep tabs on accounts and invoices. The transact element of a self-service solution addresses this vital part of the customer relationship.
By using self-service to simplify transactions, an organisation can generate tremendous efficiencies for both itself and its customers. Let's look at some of the 'transact' features expected in an enterprise self-service system:
Payment
The payment component of an enterprise-class self-service system will give the customer the ability to settle invoices without needing to leave the self-service portal to do so. He or she will be able to create and update the credit card or bank accounts that will be used to pay accounts. Companies can offer the customer a range of online payment choices, such as credit card, vouchers, or bank account debit orders.
Online payments can be easily tracked and reconciled without needing an army of administrators.
Kevin Meltzer is business development director at Consology.
Customers should also be able to set up timing for one-time payments and schedule future automatic, recurring or threshold payments. In addition, business customers will be able to set up payment approval workflows that conform to their business requirements, as well as designate how payments are applied to cost centres or physical locations to simplify reconciliation and reduce errors.
Many of these benefits are especially significant in the corporate environment. For example, a cellphone administrator at a company should be able to allocate costs for cellphone usage to individual cost centres or subsidiaries, set the timing for bill payment, and set up alerts when payments occur or thresholds are exceeded.
Orders
It makes sense to make it easy for a customer to buy products and services. This part of the solution will make it simple for the client to open or close an account. Once the account has been set up, it can be used to access a product catalogue, add items to the shopping cart, transfer funds and select options such as shipping method or insurance. Even after payment is made, the customer should be able to track his or her order's status in real-time.
For example, a cellular subscriber should be able to open an account, select a phone and a service plan online, add extra cost features, execute the order, track the order status, and activate the phone, all online without requiring any assistance.
Self-service systems allow this type of efficient customer service. And with a payment solution in place, companies can make it possible for the customer to pay for any goods and services they order online right away, rather than having them wait for an invoice to be sent by post or e-mail.
Business transactions can often be the source of unnecessary mutual inconvenience in the customer-supplier relationship. Moving the transactions online with self-service can streamline the process for both sides, making it more transparent and accurate.
Like the other elements of self-service, it can save the customer hours spent on the phone or in the branch office, as well as cut down on the reams of posted and faxed paper that underpinned the transacting process in the past.
* Subsequent Industry Insights in this series will look more closely at the interact component of an effective self-service system.
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