IVR Payments and Why You Should Have Asterisk Payment IVR Solution
Payment collection is always a chore for businesses but an unavoidable one. You can see scenarios in which businesses deploy personnel specifically for follow ups and payment collection. This is monumental waste of resources with fewer returns when a payment IVR solution can do it much better.
Reducing burden on your employees
Payment follow-up and collection is pretty routine stuff, wasteful of precious manpower resources that could be deployed to better purposes. It is also an undesirable characteristic that when called by a human agent many people are likely to fob them off with excuses or make promises they do not intend to keep. The crucial question is: once you make a phone call to remind customers to make payment how do you get them to actually do it? This gap is bridged when you have Asterisk IVR solution with integrated payment. Your employees can do something better with their time that actually contributes to productivity and business growth.
The IVR handles it all
You could have a simple IVR solution automated to send out reminders at specifically defined intervals so that customers know the due dates. Here again you see the same gap. It is one thing to remind and another to evoke immediate, desired action. The payment IVR solution resolves it at one stroke.
You get developers to put in place an IVR solution with payment gateway integration. You can integrate normal credit/debit card payments, bank transfers and even others such as PayPal to give customers options. Instead of a plain message reminding about payment, you create a message that encourages called parties to press a certain key to initiate the payment process. Once they do, the next steps are through SSL encryption in which customers input OTP and then card details through key-presses. These key presses are converted to pulses to secure data for transaction through the payment gateway. Once done the transaction reflects in your database and the system automatically sends out payment confirmation through text and, if so desired, through email too.
This is how simple it is. The automated system improves revenue collection.
Any time payments
IVRs can work 24×7. Your employees do not. This means you can schedule such IVR reminders to go out at a time convenient to customers when they are more likely to be free to respond immediately and initiate payment. This alone improves payment collection manifold. Add to this the fact that IVRs can be set up in different languages and this enhances appeal
Securer, faster payments
One reason why customers are wary of disclosing their bank details to employees over voice calls is several documented instances of card frauds. With IVR payment there is no human intervention. Card detail is converted through DTMF to data and there is no human intervention. People like it that their transaction is secure and there are no chances of card data being stolen. The process is time-saving, something customers appreciate. That they do not have to take time off to make payment and then do it securely is yet another attraction. Since switching to IVR payment reduces costs of employees you could even offer incentives to encourage customers to make payments through this mode.
No-contact payment
It is understandable that Covid 19 has changed the way people interact. No customer would like to wait in a queue to make payment and risk infection. At the same time, when they are busy working they will hardly take time off to make payment. Payment IVR solution overcomes both these delay bottlenecks. Yet another advantage is that internet connection is not needed. For instance, a customer can use a mobile phone to receive the IVR message and follow key presses to make payment even through a GSM connection.
Why choose Asterisk IVR Payment
Asterisk is the oldest and most widely used platform for IVR development. When you choose a developer specializing in Asterisk development to get your Asterisk IVR Payment solution you benefit in several ways:
- Developer has ample experience and expertise in Asterisk implementation. Your Payment IVR works perfectly without any bugs or glitches from day one.
- You can customize the IVR to suit the way you work.
- Developers already have a large library of reusable Asterisk code which translates to speed and reduced cost. You actually pay less for a custom implementation and get more features.
- Asterisk is user friendly and integrates easily into existing setup so what you have is seamless integration with your CRM and backend financials.
Competition has increased leading to cost cutting and also reduced sales. The one way to keep up revenue turnover is to speed up payments so that your cash flow does not suffer. Asterisk Payment IVR could help you achieve just that and keep your company’s finances in the black.
