Offering accounts receivable web chats can be your collection department or agency’s differentiating factor between an abandoned payment and a closed account.
Many companies use web chats to:
- Help with customer service issues
- Answer questions
- Provide general information
It’s time to reimagine web chat services for accounts receivable, to drive revenue and capture guaranteed payments.
Business Benefits of Accounts Receivable Web Chats
More consumers prefer digital communication than ever before. To provide better customer service, you should offer the channels they want to use.
This is why most AR departments and collection agencies have already launched web chat customer service options. Here are some of the specific benefits of live chat to build customer relationships and collect more payments.
FASTER RESOLUTIONS AND CUSTOMER CONVENIENCE
Accounts receivable managers know that chat channels equal fast customer communication. This convenience is the main draw. Here are five specific ways in which using a web chat helps with faster resolutions:
- Easier than a phone call: Few consumers want to talk on the phone. Chats provide the ideal experience for consumers by offering an alternative.
- Great for simple questions: Many web chat visitors have simple problems. Dialing in to be put on hold is a barrier to a quick solution.
- Captures different consumers: In accounts receivable, web chat services capture consumers you wouldn’t ever engage by phone.
- Eases embarrassment: Chat provides late-paying consumers a degree of separation that makes difficult conversations easier to have.
- Serve more consumers: Agents can only take one call at a time, but they are often able to take multiple chats. This doubles the volume an agent can handle.
Secure Web Chat Payments
Accounts receivable web chats most likely revolve around a payment owed. It only makes sense to use these chats to pay during the conversation. The benefits of this are clear:
- More captured payments: Using web chat payments is an ideal opportunity to improve cash flow. When consumers ask about accounts through chat, train agents to ask for a payment immediately. Explain their options and use payment software like PDCflow to share a secure payment link.
- Written record of conversations: In AR, compliance is the key to a healthy business. When your agents speak to consumers through chat, your company can save these written records. This helps protect against disputes and provides clear examples for training.
Key Features of Effective AR Web Chat Payments
Accounts receivable web chats can perform both the functions of customer service and payment resolution.
But just as with an online or phone payment, companies must protect customer card data via chat. Before your company starts taking payments, there are security and compliance concerns to address.
Secure In-Chat Payment Sharing
Payment security is a real concern with any digital channel. Agents should be able to balance this concern with simple, easy-to-use tools that don’t cause friction.
Don’t expect customers to leave a chat just to make a payment.
With PDCflow, agents can share a secure payment link directly through your chat system, and customers can turn a promise to pay into a guarantee.
Compliance and PCI Scope Reduction
PCI compliance is important for any company that takes card payments. Following guidelines keeps you in line with card brand rules and, more importantly, keeps customer data safe.
PDCflow’s secure payment links allow customers to type in their own payment data, which is then tokenized, encrypted, and stored in our secure vault.
Your agents don’t need to see card details, and your company never stores the sensitive information. This system reduces your company’s PCI compliance scope and makes taking payments easy and secure.
Training and Best Practices for AR Chat Agents
Web chat for AR payments will only be successful if your agents are good representatives for your company. Make sure you reinforce basic customer service best practices:
- Professional demeanor: Make sure agents view chat conversations as they would a customer phone call. They must be respectful and professional during all interactions.
- Spelling and grammar: Along with basic compliance knowledge, be sure that chat agents can follow basic typing, spelling, and grammar best practices.
- Positive language: Speaking to consumers through chat can be challenging. Agents can’t rely on a friendly tone of voice through text. Using positive language in chats will encourage consumers and build trust.
Use Cases: Real-World AR Web Chat Scenarios
Using web chat services for accounts receivable, agents should be able to do more in one interaction. Here are some real-world use cases:
- Answer simple questions about a consumer’s bill, and share links, documents, or resources for customers to review.
- Use chat for real-time payment negotiations, so you can capture a customer payment while you have them engaged.
- Explain payment options, like recurring payment schedules, so people who can’t pay up front can still get started with a plan to pay.
- Place a payment link directly into the chat to capture a fast, secure, one-time payment.
PDCflow for Secure Web Chat Payments
With PDCflow esignature and payment software, agents create a unique link directly to a consumer’s payment. Your representative can share this link in chat.
No sending consumers to another page. No promises to pay later.
Agents remain in control and can stand by to answer questions. PDCflow’s payment security features reduce PCI compliance scope by shielding payment data from your agents and handling the secure tokenization, encryption, and storage.
This means you can have chat agents working in the office, or remotely from their homes, and still keep your company and consumers safe.
Accounts Receivable Web Chat FAQs
▸What is web chat for accounts receivable?
▸How does in-chat payment handling improve cash flow?
▸Is web chat secure for payment collection?
▸What training do chat agents need for AR?
Web chat boosts AR effectiveness by increasing real-time payment capture, reducing agent workload, and maintaining compliance.
Request a demo to see how to generate a secure link to share via chat:
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- ABOUT THE AUTHOR -
Hannah Huerta, Marketing Specialist
Hannah Huerta is a Marketing Specialist at PDCflow. She creates content for the accounts receivable and payment industry.
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