Increasing B2B Loyalty With Improved Customer Experience

b2b einvoiceThe last mile in any business to business transaction, collecting payment, can be a point of friction or a seamless part of a great buying experience. Too often, its the former due to a multiple roadblocks including paper invoicing, and accounts receivable staff availability for time zone differences.

Established family businesses often have the same customers for generations and they’re fiercely loyal. Or are they? In a Bain & Company survey of 290 executives in B2B industries throughout 11 countries, 68% of respondents said customers are less loyal than they used to be. Technology can be a game changer for increasing loyalty.

Common business to business billing scenarios for distributors without ecommerce capabilities:

  • Distributor A sends invoices via text or email and lets their customer choose their experience and how they want to pay. Pay from the email/text or login to a portal? Store and tokenize ACH or credit card or manually enter each time? Send check in the mail?
  • Distributor B sends invoices via email and requires customer to login to a portal to make payments.
  • Distributor C has an online pay page customers can use to pay any amount.
  • Distributor D send invoices via email, and customers send checks in the mail.
  • Distributor E sends invoice and credit card authorization form via email, then gets a fax back, key enters into a virtual terminal.

Which billing strategy delivers the optimal customer experience? Customers want to interact with you in multiple ways, so if you’re still doing business the same way you have for decades, customers have likely shifted some of their business, or maybe all of it, to another vendor. Price is not the likely culprit. In a retail study about millennials, just 15% always purchase from the lowest price retailer, while 38% cited convenience as a reason to not purchase. 58% said they’d take advantage of self-checkout on their own mobile device.

What does this mean for B2B distribution companies? Think like your customers. Are you making it easy to do business? Are you increasing their efficiency? What’s the opportunity cost of not updating? I once sought a new distributor for a product an existing supplier discontinued. I found one, but didn’t place the first order. Why not? They required calling in with my credit card information citing it would be more secure. We were in different time zones and the phone was busy, or the person at lunch, and it was just plain inconvenient to keep trying.

A distributor recently advised me they don’t store anything – they require a credit card authorization form for every single purchase. Talk about driving customers away! Even a simple hosted pay page can alleviate the need for paper forms, immensely increase customer convenience, and increase cash flow to boot. While increasing a credit line is a possibility, some customers use them as a tool to self-manage credit, increasing purchasing without having to interact with anyone.

Invoicing and payment technology updates are critical to garnering customer loyalty, regardless of the payment type. The more flexible the solution, the more likely each customer can interact with your business via their preferred method. Today’s technology supports a myriad of payment types, including ACH, credit card, wire and others, and multiple ways to interact for making payments from email to text and beyond. Delighted customers are more loyal and more likely to refer new business.

Christine Speedy is an authorized reseller for CenPOS, a cloud-based, end-to-end payments engine that drives enterprise-class solutions for businesses, saving them time and money, while improving their customer engagement. The secure, cloud-based solution optimizes acceptance for all payment types across multiple channels without disrupting the merchant’s banking relationships. 954-942-0483

Can I use CenPOS gateway for Quickbooks electronic invoicing EIPP alternative?

Businesses can use the CenPOS Quickbooks integration for einvoicing and payment from text or email. The CenPOS electronic bill presentment and payment, or EBPP, also known as electronic invoice presentment and payment, or EIPP, will improve your customer experience and boost cash flow, as an alternative to the Intuit PaymentNetwork.

cenpos eipp electronic invoice presentment and payment

CenPOS EIPP screenshot of email body

Intuit PaymentNetwork is an electronic invoicing and payment service to accept credit cards, debit cards and ACH payments. CenPOS is a univeral payment processing network that streamlines the payment experience for merchants and customers through all sales channels, and multiple payment types. The CenPOS Quickbooks plugin is easy to use increases profits and cashflow vs Intuit einvoicing solution.

CenPOS vs Quickbooks Intuit EIPP Core Differences:

EIPP Quickbooks Intuit vs CenPOS reviewSome specific advantages:

  • Easier for customers to buy- proven to reduce DS, and increase satisfaction
  • Easier for customers to buy- proven to increase business to business sales
  • Agnostic to financial partners- non-disruptive if you change them
  • Does not create a new customer if the cardholder name does not match the name on the invoice (big complaint for Quickbooks users)

When comparing CenPOS vs Intuit’s Quickbooks EIPP solutions, CenPOS is a far more robust and powerful solution to maximize profits. Contact us for the free plugin and CenPOS services.

Hosted Pay Page vs EBPP – EIPP

How can a hosted pay page or electronic bill presentment and payment (EBPP), also known as electronic invoice presentment and payment (EIPP) improve your customer experience? Cardholders are increasingly weary about giving out card data over the phone, or worse, via fax, which also has PCI Compliance implications. Reducing friction to collect payments, while putting cardholders in control of their data, is proven to increase sales and cashflow.

A hosted pay page enables customers to passively pay bills online via a secure web page. Payment types may include credit cards, Paypal, ACH (echeck), and other methods. The burden for entering all fields is on the customer. Many payment gateways offer this service free.

hosted paypage online payments

A hosted pay page empowers customers to make secure payments online.

With EBPP, the payment request is delivered to the customer via email or text. Instead of asking customers to find the pay page, the customer is given a link to pay a specific bill or invoice, or multiple invoices, and some of the data may be prefilled. Empowering customers to review and pay multiple invoices on demand by logging into a secure portal is also a significant benefit. With our recommended solution, repeat customers with stored payment methods can pay an invoice in 2 clicks, no login required. Customers prefer EBPP vs hosted pay page. Payment types may include credit cards, Paypal, ACH (echeck), wire, and other methods.

eipp payment request

Body of email containing pre-filled payment info, and link to securely pay online.

Merchants can reduce risk of lost credit card disputes and resulting chargebacks with a multifaceted approach:

  • Ecommerce merchant account is required
  • Verify address & zip code
  • Verify CVV / CID security code; if using token billing, prior validation is OK. You do not need to verify after the first transaction.
  • 3-D Secure: Verified by Visa (Vbyv) and MasterCard SecureCode – cardholder authentication shifts fraud liability back to issuer.  Not all issuers support and implementation varies by payment gateway and other factors. Check the rules to see how it fits in your fraud prevention program.
  • How can a merchant enable customers to remotely pay an invoice, while maximizing security to prevent chargebacks from disputes? A critical step is managing the transaction representment to the issuer. It must be sent with the correct indicator and comply with all rules, including authorization validity
  • Require all B2B customers to confirm copy of the emailed receipt via a company email address. This is overkill for for most, but effective as part of an exception plan.
  • Optional custom procedures may be added based on risk tolerance.

In summary, either method of online payments increases security and enables customers to pay 24/7 to increase cash flow. EBPP or EIPP solutions have significant additional benefits and the cost to implement has dropped significantly, with many businesses experiencing an instant ROI.

UPDATE:  To comply with Visa disclosure and consent rules, only use solutions with a checkbox to opt-in to terms.

Christine Speedy, CenPOS global sales and integrated solutions reseller, 954-942-0483. CenPOS is a merchant-centric, end-to-end payments engine that drives enterprise-class solutions for businesses, saving them time and money, while improving their customer engagement. CenPOS secure, cloud-based solution optimizes acceptance for all payment types across multiple channels without disrupting the merchant’s banking relationships.

What’s the difference between EIPP and EBPP?

Both EIPP and EBPP refer to electronic bill presentment and payment and the term can be used interchangeably. E-invoicing and Ebilling started out as a way to electronically deliver invoices; They’re interchangeable as well. The next phase in payment technology included a way collect payment in addition to electronic invoice delivery. EIPP is sometimes used to describe business to business, or B2B, invoicing and EBPP business to consumer, or B2C, but there’s no hard rule. In fact, historically, you may find more references to EBPP vs EIPP.

Companies that primarily deliver B2B electronic bill presentment and payment solutions to businesses include CenPOS, 3Delta, and Billtrust. The differences in solutions is huge. Contact Christine Speedy for insights.