Today’s consumers are writing the rules for themselves: how, when, and where they want to pay their bills. This preference-driven behavior, and developments in digital technology, is forcing organizations to expand the channels through which payments are accepted. Moreover, the utility consumers are at varying levels of “tech-savvy-ness” – a Gen X consumer might prefer walk-in bill payments while their Gen Z counterparts would prefer managing their bills online. As a result, organizations must offer a wide range of payment options, including walk-in, kiosk, online, mobile, phone via interactive voice response (IVR) or customer service representatives, etc.

Consumer billing preferences are increasingly becoming more digital due to convenience, control, and speed. With the rise of mobile channels and mobile wallet payments, organizations have an opportunity to embrace digital media – for bill presentment and payments.

After all, speed, simplicity, and control help elevate the customer experience.

Data can provide a 360-degree view of customers — who they are, when they pay, where they pay and how they pay. Used as a strategic advantage, this “transactional intelligence” can enable a unified view of payments across all payment streams, allowing organizations to identify and promote high-value options, such as moving away from higher-cost service channels to lower cost-to-serve online payment and billing options.

As globally the industries are stepping up their game, leaders are focusing on upgrading the entire end-to-end customer experience. With real-time payments capabilities, integrated platforms, and virtual assistants continuing to alter the payments and billing landscape, organizations should monitor evolving customer preferences and embrace adaptability. This way, organizations can walk alongside their customers into the future instead of chasing after them.

The Alternate Payments Adoption

Demand and preferences for digital/mobile payments have been at an all-time high in the past decade. Since 2020, COVID-19 has prompted this demand for more speed, convenience, and superior CX. It further greased the skids for cash-use decline while powering the shift to digital payments and cashless societies. QR code-based payments will be an important catalyst for the next growth story of non-cash payments; countries worldwide are adopting QR code-based payments, which are cost-effective and provide ease of implementation.

Offering customers their preferred digital payment methods unlocks new business opportunities for various industry players

Alternate payment methods to power non-cash payments

Expanding adoption of digital billing and payment options

By 2021, 65% of customers stated that they prefer to receive bills and statements by email and 20% prefer to receive them through online websites compared to 54% and 7% in 2019, respectively. This has led to experts predicting that the global market for Electronic Bill Presentment and Payment (EBPP) will grow to 30.7 billion bills by 2027 from an estimated 18.2 billion bills in 2020.

Consumers are willing to pay bills using digital payments

Digital payments being easy, convenient, and secure to use, are becoming a preferred payment option for various transactions, including recurring bills. Presently, most consumers are likely to use a digital wallet to pay monthly bills.

Consumer Willingness to Pay Bills Using a Digital Wallet

The services billers provide for bill payment have not kept pace with changing consumer behaviors and preferences, resulting in multiple challenges for paying bills, ultimately impacting billers. When they miss a payment, they often lack the funds, but simple oversight is also a frequent issue. Flexible due dates and other automated and online account management features would make it easier for customers to pay their bills.

Features That Make Bill Payment Easier for Consumers

Conclusion

New digital entrants in the billing and payment ecosystem are acting as a catalyst to offer a best-in-class customer experience and unlock new business opportunities for various industry players. Whether it’s a government push or regulatory compliance or evolving customer expectation, all the rules together have bought real-time billing and payment rails to live now. It’s a complete billing & payment modernization happening across the industry and across the globe. The results of which shall be unique, compelling and often specific to industries.