By Ordo

Many businesses spent lockdown offering a lifeline of payment holidays while customers financially struggled. With cash tight, now is the time businesses need efficient, effective, but polite, payment processes.

The country went into lockdown and businesses were asked to provide financial healthcare for customers. Many businesses rose to the challenge, despite staff working remotely, reduced work forces due to furloughing and accommodating colleagues left with zero childcare. That generosity has come at a cost…

Generosity hits revenue

There were plenty of offers, discounts and payment deferrals, and now that generosity is showing on the bottom line; businesses need to be smarter when collecting payments.

Existing bills may remain unpaid and/or take longer. Cashflow is more important than ever.

How to ensure you get paid

As businesses knuckle down, tricky payment conversations are inevitable. Here Ordo’s top tips for getting paid:

1. Keep customers happy: make it easy for them to pay, straight from their phone without having to look up amounts and references, give them no reason to delay paying;
2. Get money instantly and ensure automatic reconciling – new payments regulations mean payments services can be slick and efficient, meaning businesses are paid instantly, with money landing in your bank account immediately, and automatically reconciled;
3. Cut costs – especially the hidden ones – do you know all that you’re paying to receive payments? Companies often take a percentage of the value of every transaction, 1-4% typically, and on a £2,000 bill that’s £80 – nearly a year’s worth of Netflix you’re giving Visa, Mastercard, PayPal or Stripe on every Make sure you know what you’re being charged, work out what the percentages really cost, including any rental/subscription for card readers or minimum/standing fees, and decide whether you’re happy; and
4. Stay safe – think holistically: physical, mental, and online. We still need to be physically (not socially) distant from those outside our household, we need to keep active and try to forget the biscuit tin, and connect with people however possible. But the fraudsters are profiteering too – hackers fish for emails attaching invoices, the account details of which they change to their own, meaning when your loyal customer pays, it’s the fraudster that benefits leaving two innocent victims – in 2019 UK fraudsters made >£114m from invoice fraud. Find a secure platform that allows for secure bill sending, giving you and your customers confidence money will end up in the right place.

The post-COVID go-to payment method

Ordo is an end to end encrypted request-for-payment service, and is making getting paid easy. It’s free to trial, and can be API integrated with any system or used independently; with instant payment and reconciliation together with fraud prevention and low costs, it’s the game changer for businesses trying to survive the impact of coronavirus.

Find out more at www.ordohq.com/enterprise or try for free at www.myordo.com.