Countless organizations struggle with in-person payment options that fall short of meeting their customers’ needs. Cash customers, especially, can only come into a payment center to make a payment, and those unable to make it during set business hours often resort to dropping cash payments into a drop box.
Modern, self-service payment channels provide an excellent alternative for organizations and their customers. Topping the list of in-person payment options are self-service payment kiosks. This payment channel provides a versatile, secure, in-person payment solution that accepts multiple bill types and allows customers to make full and partial payments 24/7 by cash, check, debit card, or credit card.
Eliminate Payment Center Congestion Kiosk Technology
A crowded payment center with long lines of customers is a very common experience for municipalities and can be a challenge to manage. Going into a payment center to make payments is often the only way cash customers can conduct business with a city or utility. And the nonstop responsibility of servicing such a large volume of customers can leave CSRs overwhelmed.
With the emergence of more modern and secure tech in the payments industry, governments and utilities everywhere are taking advantage of cutting-edge technologies that offer great flexibility and convenience to all of their customers, regardless of how and when they pay bills.
The City Utilities of Springfield (CU) selected self-service kiosks to alleviate the challenges they and their customers faced. Prior to the implementation of kiosks, CU customers had to come into a payment center to make payments by cash. Now, they are able to pay by cash, check, debit card or credit card 24/7 at any kiosk in the network. The kiosks have enhanced flexibility and customer convenience, removing the frustration of waiting in long lines at payment centers.
Reliable, Highly-Secure Tech Inspires Customer Confidence
No organization wants to invest time and energy in researching and implementing new technology if the new tech isn’t going to provide a consistent and modern user experience for years to come. If customer confidence is already waning due to outdated means of revenue collection, introducing new tech that falls short will only reinforce their dissatisfaction. Add to that the security implications of using dropboxes, many organizations are looking for a better way to collect payments from their customers.
Lakewood Township in New Jersey is another municipality that benefited from the implementation of kiosks. Like CU, Lakewood residents were limited to making in-person payments at the counter or dropping cash payments into an unsecured drop box. Lakewood’s goal was to introduce a more secure, in-person payment solution to their residents. As an organization with a clear commitment to innovation, they began to explore options in modern payment technology and selected 24/7 self-service kiosks to deliver a full-service experience to residents.
In a very short time, customer satisfaction went up. Customers were able to make property tax payments quickly and easily with the help of a very user-friendly workflow, and customers took solace in knowing payments posted to their accounts immediately.
They love the kiosks. They love the fact that they can pull up at midnight and hop out of the car, go put their tax payments in the kiosks, and get a receipt and know that their tax payment is made and they just feel confident in it. Our goal is to move forward with technology, with being able to provide better service, more secure service.”
— Trish Komsa, Chief Operational Officer for Lakewood Township
The Needs of Customers Guides Innovation
The flexibility to make payments for everyday services how and when it is most convenient is now the standard. Large portions of the population still prefer or have no choice but to make payments in person. The expectation to have 24/7 access to pay bills is held by all customers. Modern and reliable payment technology is the key to building and maintaining customer confidence.
Schedule a brief demo and learn more about our kiosks, cashiering technology, or online payments channels.