Why IVR Payments During COVID-19

With COVID-19 affecting the economy, companies are looking for ways to maintain cash flow and keep customers paying for services. One of the more popular methods is through the devices customers carry with them everywhere – their mobile phones. 

IVR payments allow customers to make voice payments 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year. Interactive Voice Response technology will enable customers to call into an automated system to make payments with voice prompts. 

Healthcare providers and other organizations have integrated cloud IVR payment systems with their customer databases to provide real-time payment options. When a customer calls, the cloud IVR system checks caller ID to determine if the customer owes money and offers them the opportunity to pay immediately. When they do, the IVR system connects with the payment processors to approve the payment.  

Inbound IVR payments aren’t the only way IVR systems help during COVID-19. Many companies are also using outbound voice and SMS text messaging to remind customers to make payments proactively. Yes, especially SMS text messaging.

When using SMS text messaging notifications for IVR payments, customers have these options.

Pay by Web

Organizations with the ability to offer payments through a web interface may send something like this, “Jane, this is a reminder your water bill is due. To make a payment, click this link yourweblink.com.” By clicking on the link, the customer has the option to enter their payment information in a secure web service.

Pay by Phone

Most organizations with IVR payment systems offer this service. It tends to be the simplest by giving the customer the ability to click a number to call in to pay in less than 2 minutes. The SMS text message may look something like this, “Jane, this is a reminder your water bill is due. To make a payment any time, please call 1-800-xxx-xxxx.” When the customer calls this number, the call-flow guides them through a secure voice payment process.

Pay by Text

Text payments are more and more in demand. These messages might look something like this, “Jane, this is a reminder your water bill is due. To make a payment any time, please reply with Pay.” When the customer replies with Pay, the IVR system walks them through a quick 3-4 steps SMS text exchange to approve the payment.

These are a few of the ways companies are using IVR payments during COVID-19. To learn more about voice and text automation solutions, visit our blog at www.ivrtechgroup.com/blog.