Mobile phones have increasingly become tools that consumers use for banking, payments, budgeting, and shopping. Given the rapid pace of developments in the area of mobile finance, the Federal Reserve Board began conducting annual surveys of consumers’ use of mobile financial services in 2011. This 78-page report, “Consumers and Mobile Financial Services” (March, 2015) examines trends in the adoption and use of mobile banking, payments, and shopping behavior and how the emergence of mobile financial services affects consumers’ interaction with financial institutions.
Utility, Healthcare and Insurance Industies Plan Increased Mobile Billing Options for 2011, Says Survey
Only about 20% of Utility, Healthcare and Insurance industry companies currently offer customers the option of mobile text bill presentment, and 60% of those polled indicated they have plans to offer such services in 2011, according to a recent poll by BillingTree.
BillingTree, Inc, one of the nation’s leading on-demand payment processors, today announced results from a poll taken during a recent webinar, which looked at the benefits of using mobile payment solutions to collect from customers, particularly in the Utility, Healthcare and Insurance industries. Of those attendees polled, only 20 percent currently offer customers the option of text bill presentment and authorization, but 60 percent of those polled plan to in 2011.
These findings support recent NACHA statistics for utility companies, which predict a 35% year-on-year growth rate in e-billing, with 100% planning to offer mobile alerts within the next 12 months. Additional webinar survey findings include:
- Only one third currently offer pre-paid accounts with mobile funding for their services.
- 85% believe offering new mobile prepaid and text solutions will increase customer adoption of paperless billing.
Mobile payment options offer much greater convenience for customers on the go, and provide a tool for organizations to communicate directly with their customers about possible service outages etc., as well as any outstanding bills.
“The results from the webinar show that the rapid mainstream adoption of text messaging is driving many organizations to think more seriously about integrating mobile payments solutions,” said Scott McCollum, BillingTree’s President. “Our Mobile Solutions Suite delivers on this increase in customer adoption, and will help organizations to collect from customers more effectively and in a way that better suits their needs.”
BillingTree supplies fully integrated, multi-channel electronic payment platform to a growing list of Industries, including Insurance, Utilities (such as energy, cable, municipal, and phone), as well as Healthcare and Subscription-billed services. Benefits of electronic payment solutions include an accelerated availability of consumer funds, reduced costs associated with manual-payment processing, improved cash management, and integrated processing by managing all payments, returns, and corrections through a single portal.
Source: PRNewswire