Receivables automation: Which works best for implementation?

In a recent webinar, presented by IOFM and sponsored by Deluxe, receivables experts Mark Brousseau (Brousseau & Associates) and Beth Bourgoin (Deluxe) shared the latest IOFM research on the main challenges companies face when automating their AR processes and the top three strategies these companies can use to maximize their digital payments.

During the Q&A portion of the webinar, an audience member asked, in terms of automation, which method works best—the carrot or the stick—in order to encourage or motivate payers to change their behavior?

Deluxe’s Integrated Receivables Product Manager Beth Bourgoin explains that “the carrot,” or the ROI tool, is what she has found is most successful in getting payers to change the way they pay companies.

“The way to do it is to go back to your customers and say, ‘In order to process your payments more effectively’ or ‘In order to reduce your own costs in sending checks,’” says Bourgoin. What she has found most effective is to call out how automation benefits the payer and not the company. “Even though you have a thousand reasons it's going to benefit you internally, [your payers] have benefits as well.”

The Benefits of AR automation

Examples of these benefits include: Payers will get validation that an electronic payment was done on an EBPP site. They'll get quicker validation of it withdrawing from their account, and then there's the reduction in fraud.

Bourgoin continued to point out that for payers who are used to sending checks via mail, that can pose a heightened risk of security fraud. By focusing on some of the benefits and why accounts receivable automation benefits the payer, you’ll be able to have a strong use case to change your payers’ behavior.

“Leading with the benefits, I've felt has been more effective than saying, ‘We want you to change to ACH,’” says Bourgoin. “Someone is less likely to change if they don't see any benefit for themselves and it starts to feel like more work to do. Put some of those benefit bullet points together to remind them why this is an easier option and go from there.”