This document discusses the symptoms that indicate a company may have problems with its billing and payment processes. It identifies four main symptoms: 1) average interchange fees of 2.5% or higher, 2) inability to identify or quantify best customers, 3) lack of central management of most important accounts, and 4) little control over customers' sales experiences. Implementing a strategic billing and payments solution can help address these problems by decreasing fees, standardizing processes, personalizing the customer experience, and driving new revenue.

1. Symptoms of a Billings & Payment Problem

3. Symptoms of a Billing and Payments Problem Symptom #1: Your Average Interchange Fees are 2.5% or Higher. Symptom #2: You Cannot Identify or Quantify Your Best Customers. Symptom #3: Your Most Important Accounts are not Centrally-Managed. Symptom #4: You Have Little to No Control Over your Customers’ Sales Experience.

4. The fee charged to a merchant for each transaction processed varies based upon factors like: • Type of card used, • Type of merchant at which the card is used, and • Volume of transactions that merchant generates. P-Card users drive up your average cost of transaction with little additional benefit to your business. In fact, merchants often cite Interchange fees and merchant service fees as reasons for non-acceptance of P-Cards and other commercial payment cards. Symptom #1: Your Average Interchange Fees are 2.5% or Higher. Among the most expensive type of charge card to process is the P-Card, a payment method popular among commercial customers because of its purchasing controls and reporting options.

6. Commercial customers demand more than high-quality products, and they represent the buying power to negotiate specialized pricing based upon: • Annual spend with your company, • Specific product quantities, • Geographic needs, and/or • Seasonal purchasing requirements. Multiply this scenario by tens, hundreds, or thousands and tracking of overall customer value becomes cumbersome and inefficient. Symptom #3: Your Most Important Accounts are not Centrally-Managed. Without centralized customer transaction data, you may have to rely on your customer’s accounting records rather than your own to determine an appropriate pricing-model or benefits package for a valued customer.

7. Individual merchants may have varied levels of opportunity to develop relationships with white-glove commercial accounts with benefits including: • Specialized product pricing or rewards, • Consolidated bilings, and/or • Monthly purchasing reports. Individual relationships between sales locations and the company may minimize the customers’ actual value to your business. Symptom #4: You Have Little to No Control Over Your Customers’ Sales Experience. VIP treatment received from one merchant often cannot be replicated throughout the sales network. Despite your customers’ continued loyalty, their pricing, rewards system or billing benefits may not always be honored.