Value in Automating Payments

In startups it’s common that we try to make a lot happen with little resources. Which is why automating processes as much as possible can be a huge benefit to your company, regardless of the size. Whether your company is B2B or B2C, clients value immediate response times, and when it comes to money, the need for an experience that is both quick and efficient is even more important. That means not only the need for automation, but also instant payments. So what are the benefits?

1. Meeting the Desire for Instant Results

Customer satisfaction is becoming even more fundamental, and automation is no longer enough, it also has to be instant. We have discovered that the more we create a quick and seamless experience for our customers, we increase the likelihood they will return to us, and with more money to spend. Just check out Reveni: A Madrid based company that helps eCommerce merchants provide instant refunds and exchanges for their customers. 

We’ve all bought things online, it’s part of our daily lives. Whether it’s clothes, furniture, or groceries, it’s common that some of the things we receive we might want to keep. So why is it that if we can make an instant purchase, we can’t make an instant refund?

This is a huge blind side in many eCommerce companies and they’re missing out on the money that comes from exceptional customer service. Studies show there is a high increase in retention of customers that have this option.

If we can integrate instant refunds in hand with instant purchases, the customer is then left with a truly exceptional experience.

2. Reduce/Eliminate Manual Tasks

Automation creates the ability to eliminate time consuming and repetitive tasks and give your employees the freedom to take on different assignments. 

Processing payments manually can be extremely lengthy and tedious, and these tasks are traps for human error. You’re working with a variety of documents (some paper and some electronic). There’s data entry, validating invoices, cross referencing purchases, generating payment files, online banking, and the list goes on. For a company, this can cause a huge problem, if things aren’t paid on time, or paid correctly, you run the risk of damaging your relationships. 

By automating payments you eliminate or at least significantly reduce the amount of manual tasks you require to make your payments. Your systems can connect to a secure API and send the payments directly. You can always configure approval rules, transaction monitoring, and velocity checks to keep everything under control. Even better, there is no need to follow a process where multiple people have to be working sequentially during hours or days to make a single payment. Especially if the result is not instant and the information you have about the whole process of the payment is minimal.

Take a company like Barkibu, a pet health insurance application that manages their payments to their customers automatically, and digitally. Through their automated payment system using Devengo’s API they’re able to reimburse their clients with just a click of a button. 

3. Operate 24/7

Obviously, (hopefully) the humans on your team aren’t working on the weekends or during the night. But why does that mean all payments should stop? It can be the difference between someone needing an emergency micro-loan on Saturday, but not being able to receive it until Monday when someone reviews the request. If they earned it, they should be able to access it, right? And if there’s an easy solution, why not integrate it into your company?

People aren’t businesses, and they need to plan their funds. A great example of this is Dispon, a small loans company that provides quick solutions to individuals in a pinch. They used to have one employee manually checking loan requests and using individual bank platforms to try to get payments to their customers as soon as possible. While another employee was assigned the role to create and delete bank accounts manually. But now with Devengo’s API, they can send instant payments, and create and delete accounts in real time.   

Automation allows your payment system to work 24×7 and instant payment networks allow your payments to arrive at their destination 24×7 too. Having a secure API that can tell you when it’s sent, when it’s arrived, or why it hasn’t arrived, can be the make or break factor for you, or the person receiving it. And this can happen 24×7. Have we said 24×7 enough times yet?

4. Reduce Operational Burden

Automating payments using an API brings another great benefit: less operational mistakes and support requests. Each payment that you make using an API is atomic, even if you send them in batches. So it makes it easier for your support, operations and finance teams to know exactly what has happened with each payment. Did the money arrive? Was the account closed? Is there a problem with payee’s name and AML regulation? Imagine having an answer to all these questions in real time and being able to act accordingly. Even more, if your provider has a Smart Retry System, like Devengo has, it can solve the problems as they happen, without your intervention. 

Payflow, a company founded in 2020 understands this need, and have created a solution for companies and employees through salary advance and financial literacy. They make tens and thousands of transactions and are able to track each individually. This benefits the support team greatly, with less need to put energy towards answering tickets asking “where’s my money”? 

When to go from manual, to automated?

In the end, you might wonder when is a good time to change from manual to automated payments. The answer is simple, can it be integrated into your product? And if so, will the integration of an instant payment API into your business significantly improve your value proposition? If so, you have your answer.