When it comes to digital payments, there is a temptation to think if you don’t integrate in every area at once that you’re going to have to reinvest either time, money, or both. The good news for most businesses is that is usually far from true.
Some businesses are ready to jump into faster payments with two feet. These businesses go from zero to hero pretty much overnight. In healthcare we’ve seen the discount value propositions reach surprising percentages from the cost of using checks and really bolster the company’s bottom line. We’ve seen similar circumstances in the property management, insurance, gig economy and transportation industries.
It’s been our experience, though, that most businesses benefit largely from getting their feet wet in digital payments with isolated use cases.
(Kim Ford, Executive Director at the U.S. Faster Payments Council, sharing her insight on how businesses can kick-start the implementation of faster payments.)
For example, we’re seeing healthcare providers offer faster payments to their customers in the form of patient refunds, and then deciding later to extend these same principles into other use cases and eventually into their AP and AR departments. For many businesses this methodology isolates any additional areas that need their attention and keeps the organization flowing well during the transition. The growth of faster payments is then a more fluid process.
Similarly, in property and casualty insurance, the most immediate need is usually to enhance member experience by being able to offer payments quickly after an unfortunate circumstance.
The cost savings, as well as the added benefit of customer satisfaction (which often leads to customer growth) then creates a ripple effect throughout the organization.
This movement makes department heads eager for CFO’s to bring digital payments to their area - an effect that allows the CFO the ability to largely increase the companies bottom line through the initial cost savings of faster payments, and then from the growth that comes with their own client experience in respective areas, without disrupting multiple internal processes at once.
In transportation, businesses want the ability to be able to offer travel disruption payments immediately, and in a fashion that alleviates some of the already disappointing experience their passengers are experiencing. Issuing a refund often offers the traveler limited benefit if they can’t access and use their funds in the middle of the disturbance.
Businesses that offer their passengers immediate access to those funds via real-time payments have seen not only that their customers are more satisfied, but they have also seen the growth effects to their bottom line from the overall savings by not relying solely on checks for payment. These results generally create further growth for faster payments within the organization without disrupting multiple processes at once.
There are countless use cases in every industry that advocate for starting small in faster payments and evaluating how to best grow the process internally to achieve the most effective benefits. But to able to grow in this manner fluidly it’s important to consider an omni-channel pay-in / pay-out platform with added workflows.
Platforms that offer multiple payment options as well as the ability to easily grow those options in today’s quickly changing economy, will not only see the most immediate results in those respective areas - they will also be the companies that can grow their digital payments experience most fluidly without having to switch providers. Partnering with a fintech that offers Open API’s can be another huge advantage to moving this process along and bringing the most seamless initial integration to your company possible.
To move to faster payments, we suggest isolating a use case: emergency pay scenarios, merchant settlements, supplier payments, individual product lines, and rebate situations are often good starting points for most companies. Layer into other solutions and grow into your AP/AR solutions from there.
Partner with a forward thinking fintech that can offer multiple payment options for both B2B and B2C applications with added workflows in both arenas and has a robust offering of Open API’s. If you do this well then you’ll be set-up for greatness for many years to come.
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