Adrian Floate
16 December - 3 min read
COVID-19 and the resulting decline in business activity has made it necessary for businesses to provide safe, fast and easy payment options for customers.
Industry disruptors like Uber introduced consumers to a seamless payment system – a sales process customers now expect.
Business payment processes are long overdue for an overhaul.
The way businesses trade has changed little in centuries, with most businesses using manual data entry, which wastes time, money and is prone to mistakes.
The late payment of invoices limits business cash flow, meaning they are less resilient to economic volatility and cannot survive long if business drops.
However, businesses can get paid for goods and services on delivery in real time if they adopt software that features an intent to pay framework and workflow payments.
Once customers have entered their details and confirmed tokenisation of their card they can enjoy contactless transactions triggered at the point of purchase.
Payments are automatic and effortless, just like Uber.
The benefits for customers:
- Enhanced customer experience – Payments seem invisible. Customers won’t need to wait for an invoice or remember to pay their bills.
- Convenience – Swipe yes to pay or automatic payments saves time.
- Security – customers do not give out credit details over the phone or risk typing in the wrong bank account details.
The benefits for business:
- Better cash flow – making it easy for customers to pay is the key to fast payment and increased sales. Intent to pay frameworks give more certainty for business owners.
- Eliminates debt recovery – enhanced customer reconciliation automation means less time spent chasing up late invoices and improves relationships with customers.
- Real time collaboration – improves business to business (B2B) transactions with one integrated system, that benefits both parties.
- Less computer hardware – reduces the need for terminals (such as EFTPOS) in the field.
- Security – good payment systems offer anti-money laundering (AML), know your customer (KYC) and two factor authentication (2FA).
The benefits for the economy:
- Increased cash flow – late invoice payments and a lack of payment methods costs Australian small businesses a combined $20 billion each year, according to a Xero report. By encouraging customers and suppliers to pay on time increases the amount of money flowing through the economy. It increases the growth potential of a business and the ability of business owners to invest and access finance.
The new workflow payments software allows businesses to disrupt their respective verticals – just like Uber.
The use of software that enhances the customer’s experience resulted in Uber dominating the taxi and ride-share industry.
Uberfication has become synonymous with pivoting a business to providing convenience for customers.
Having contactless transactions triggered at the point of purchase or completion of a service is the ultimate in convenience for customers.
Related Articles
Having the ability to get paid quickly is key for any business, and yet late invoice payments continue to be a burden for many Australian businesses, costing around $1.1 billion per year.
Invoicing is a core component of your business that can either lead to stable cash flow or late payments. And while it may feel like all of the power is in your debtor’s hands when it comes to getting paid on time, that isn’t always the case.
With a more digital and connected world, we have seen a surge in the adoption of eCommerce technologies and contactless payments.
