The way bills are paid and presented are being changed drastically, with the next gen electronic bill presentment. From local municipalities to Fortune 500s, utility bill should make it easier to communicate with customers, deliver electronic bills, and receive payments. 

Having a unified and comprehensive platform that is highly configurable is something that many consumers want out of their electronic bill payment/presenter. To give you a little insight, when searching for a utilities partner, check for the following: 

• Innovative 
• Carries consumer centric solutions 
• Complete biller EBPP platform 
• Comprehensive functionality, tailored to your unique business needs 
• Reporting capabilities and data matching for quick reconciliation 
•  Accounting system compatibility to seamlessly integrate your data 

Ensure that your payment platform extends the reach of our platform, giving businesses more ways to connect to their customers through their preferred channels, all with a single integration.  

Let us get to know what are the few things that utility companies can and should do: 

• Onboarding: The TaT for onboarding new customers should be relatively low and how quickly can it set up the merchant account.  

• Hosted Infrastructure: Utilities company should be fully-hosted platform of self-service features (online, mobile, IVR, kiosk and automated payments) allows you to improve customer service and efficiency without the cost of expensive hardware and software implementations. Our scalable platform grows with your business. Billtrax is a good example of hosted platform that has unparalleled customer service.  

• Stability: Nothing is more frustrating to customers than errors and glitches when making a payment. Customers value the always accessible, easy-to-use payment experience and continue to use those services for future payments.  

• Bank Level Security: Utility companies should be compliant to EBPP platform ensures your electronic payments are secure and meet industry standards to alleviate the burden, cost and risk of compliance, so customers can focus on their core business.   

• Rapid Implementation: Utility platforms should ensure fast, consistent deployments that accommodate business rules, and the deep CIS and data migration experience makes it easy to switch from legacy service providers to the companies. 

• Service Cost: Cost is definitely one of the biggest considerations when it comes to choosing a service. Different utilities company will have different fee structures which can include monthly fees, fixed fees per transaction, variable fees based on the transaction amount, and extra fees for things like chargebacks, international payments and currency conversions. It is on the consumer whether they are considering operating with one or multiple gateways, but ensure all the costs are out there with no room for any hidden costs which might take the customers by surprise.  

• Single point of connection: You must provide automated online banking payment transactions with a single point of connection to nearly all financial institutions, FiServ, Metavante, and other online Bill Payment services. Ensuring all payment solutions undergo rigorous PCI security reviews and adhere to all Payment Card Data Security standards. 

• Payment Methods: Do you support new payment methods, particularly recently, with new payment methods continually coming to the fore. When businesses select a utility solutions provider, they make sure consider if the gateway supports all the payment methods relevant to the current market. 

• Integration Options: is yours a single point connectivity? Ensure that you minimize development time & cost by taking advantage of powerful networks efficiently to generate a wide range of file formats. 

• Iron Clad Customer Support: When dealing with finances/bills and bill presentment, issues are meant to arise from both sides, yours as well as your customer’s end. Major issues that prevent payments from going through can stop a business dead in its tracks and necessitate the immediate involvement of your customer support to provide a rapid remedy so that payments can be collected again. 

When dealing with payment issues, a customer support team usually plays a key role in identifying and resolving issues. It’s important to understand how the team will work with you to solve problems, how accessible and responsive they are, and what policies they have in place. 

The Billtrax Advantage :

BillTrax offers faster payments and greater operational efficiency due to automated delivery of electronic payments in place of paper by reducing the number of check-and- list items and slow manual processing time under secure payment transactions. It provides a high level of payment assurance during the transaction that standard paper remittance cannot duplicate including faster account editing, routing, and settlement of functions typically completed within 24 hours .

• It delivers one of the most advanced electronic payment services available, setting the standard for the industry. 
• Billtrax adds value across the entire electronic payments landscape by providing a premier solution that can integrate with your existing payment systems. 
• We help your business to grow by managing your online bill payment tasks so that you can concentrate on other business activities. 
• Making online bill generation and digital payments faster, secure, and efficient through efficient, error-free, and cost effective online baking payments solution. 
• All our solutions are capable of supporting multiple fee-based payment models and types, including Visa, Mastercard, American Express, or ACH.