How to Improve AR Customer Service | Payference

Having an established and accurate AR system is crucial for customer retention and your company’s cash flow. Satisfied customers are essential, especially with many competitors ready to market your customers away. Without a system to remind them, it also becomes less urgent for debtors to make payments in a timely manner.  Adopting an automated accounts receivable system process can help with greater cash flow stability and more positive customer experiences.

A Brief Review of AR: 

An AR system helps regulate and handle customer invoices and payment details. The software can draft, send, and make inquiries about invoices. However, many businesses do not standardize these processes, making it difficult to scale up the number of customers and resolve disputes quickly.

Although AR systems look very different in different companies, below is the basic setup:

• Draft an invoice.
• Send the invoice to the customer.
• Track invoices and responses.
• Make inquiries about payments.
• Secure payments.
• Note uncollectible debts.

Improving AR Through Management:

Having routines in place is essential for improving AR operations because the information is passed through different teams and standardization helps with accuracy and efficiency. Managers can do so by automating every part of the AR process. They can also encourage communication with clients regarding updates and changes to invoice policies. Managers must be on top of the payments so issues are resolved as quickly as they rise. Lastly, they can revisit the legal aspects of following up on payments and debts from businesses and other customers.

How to Craft an AR Experience

Many businesses focus on how the customer receives the product or service to gauge customer satisfaction, however, this priority makes it easy to overlook the purchasing aspect of the experience. A company should strive to make a seamless procedure that provides a variety of alternatives to show how the business prioritizes the customer’s time and preferences. Higher customer satisfaction in the payment process not only brings in AR quicker but also increases customer retention and attraction through positive referrals.

How To Improve the Customer Experience

There tends to be more client contact throughout the AR process than other touchpoints such as digital marketing.  By investing effort to better AR customer service, the business can establish stronger relationships with its clients.

To get started, first assess your current AR process from a company and customer point of view. Once you see the strengths and weaknesses of your system, create reasonable targets that you hope to accomplish with your team and how to do so. It is difficult to truly see from a customer perspective as the provider, so receiving feedback from the customers themselves is a great way to make sure the developments made are satisfying the current customers’ wants. Using this information in addition to automating every step can significantly improve the system in place. Communication is key with customers as those who are regularly checked in with are more likely to offer thoughtful feedback that will help both entities. Once your AR process is as seamless as it can be, you can shift your focus to presenting additional benefits to the customers that show good payment performance.

Giving Customers Options

Customers that get to choose their preferred payment method and have a time window to make the payment at their convenience are much more likely to pay in a timely manner than those who don’t. This opportunity shows customers that your business is prioritizing its customers. To do so, you can automate payment portals online and offer physical payment alternatives. Designing installment payment plans for financially troubled businesses is a great way to help them afford your products and services. Finally, let the customers choose the day they would like the payment to be due so they are more likely to meet that billing date.

AR Automation

Automation of processes, including invoices, payment issuing, and follow-ups, can substantially improve the customer satisfaction of your clients. Not only does it make the transcription process simpler for the customer, but it also saves your team time they would be spending on manual procedures. Instead, they can use this time on more personal customer relationship handling. Automation improves communication, accessibility, and efficiency, establishing higher levels of customer satisfaction and retention. Your customers will be more satisfied and your team will appreciate a more productive AR system.

Would you like to discover how businesses like yours can achieve a decreased DSO and accelerated payments, generating over 10x ROI using Payference?

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