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3 reasons to use SMS for outstanding payment reminders
When you run a busy business or organisation, even a temporary disruption to your regular cash flow can cause serious problems. That’s why it’s imperative for customers and clients to pay on time However, in our hectic lives, it’s easy to forget to pay an outstanding bill or go over a pre-set spending limit.
That’s where payment reminder SMS solutions come in, offering a simple yet powerful solution to this common problem of late, unpaid bills or fast approaching spending limits which, if breached, can cost you and your customers a lot of time and money.
SMS payment reminders are a powerful tool for improving your cash flow with minimal fuss. Here are three easy use cases to get started:
1. Help customers with overdue payment reminder SMS
One of the simplest features of a payment reminder SMS is the ability to send a simple text message to a customer informing them their invoice is unpaid and overdue. This feature works for everything from unpaid phone, utility and gym bills (to name a few), to reminding a customer that the latest instalment on a lay-by purchase has been missed.
Payment reminder SMS alerts also offer an important element of personalisation, allowing you to incorporate your own text into the automated reminder message. This enables you to include details such as a contact number or email address so they can directly discuss any payment issues with a customer service representative. You could even add a shortened URL link to the payment gateway of your website, allowing the customer to immediately pay their outstanding bill, thus resolving the problem on the spot.
TOP TIP: check out our ready-to-use SMS templates for payment reminders to save you some time.
2. Get ahead with proactive SMS payment reminders
Even better than reminding someone when their bill is already overdue, payment reminder SMS functionality allows you to message customers ahead of a due date, offering them the attractive incentive of an early payment discount. This method is particularly effective, with international research conducted by IPA and the United States Agency for International Development finding that SMS reminders improved the probability of on-time bill payments by 7-9%, and the ‘average days late’ dropped by two days per month.
These payment reminders can be sent to a large number of customers at once via bulk SMS technology, with personalisation incorporated to enhance your customer relationships, while maintaining the integrity of your cash flow in a non-threatening manner.
3. Pre-set percentage friendly payment reminder SMS
No one likes receiving a huge bill, especially when it’s completely unexpected – an all-too-common situation known as ‘bill shock’.
SMS payment reminders can also save your customers from bill shock, by sending them SMS alerts once they’ve used a pre-set percentage of their monthly service or reached a certain level of spending. At the same time, this saves you the time and hassle of dealing with customers who cannot afford to pay unexpectedly large bills. This arrangement can work for a whole range of businesses, from mobile and broadband services to pre-paid gym membership and many more.
Final thoughts, further reading
Ensuring you have a steady cash flow and staying on top of customers is essential to any long-running business. Make it easy with yourself with SMS reminders, which also work very effectively for the likes of booking appointments and reminders. Ready to ease the process? Start with a free trial or make sure to chat with one of our messaging experts.
Make sure to also check out:
- 5 ways SMS is making utility bill payments easy
- Start SMS for bill payments with our free trial
- Learn how Synergy cut overdue payments by 45% with text reminders
