Your AR journey doesn’t end as soon as you purchase accounts receivable software. Neither should the service and support you receive from your vendor. Just like you work hard to build a sustained relationship with your customers, a good vendor should take steps to ensure that you are getting the most out of your solution.
Of course, knowing that you need help and knowing what kind of help you need are two different things. To give you the best idea of what to look for when selecting an accounts receivable software vendor, we talked with Krista Mancini, Director of Digital Optimization at YayPay, and Chris Murray, Senior Director of Customer Experience. Together, they outline what you can and should expect after adopting a solution.
Get up and running
“The key to ensuring the success of new software is a vendor with a digital optimization team (DOT),” Mancini said. “One that will help get you up and running and also ensure that your customers have what they need to adjust to the new system.”
While most providers will set you up with an account manager and customer service representative for general questions, it helps to have a dedicated contact for digital optimization as well, one who will ensure that you have all of the tools you need to help transition your customers to making payments in the online portal and receiving invoices electronically.
“A good DOT will help you create a personalized digital optimization strategy based on your company’s unique needs and goals,” Mancini said. “They will also leverage existing communication tools like your website, social media, and invoice messaging to inform your customers about the benefits of digital payments. As a result, your team can hit the ground running with the new software, and you can expect an improved payment experience for your customers.”
According to Mancini, there are key activities that a DOT team should provide. These include monitoring the uptake of payment methods within your customer base, working with your team to create tailored reports that help you track your progress, and enabling features like recurring payments and automatic payments to help lower your days sales outstanding (DSO), and increase electronic payment volume.
“It’s also beneficial if the team can help you create customizable, tailored communications,” Mancini said. “These can be used in the same way as invoice reminders. They’ll help make sure that you’re consistently promoting digital invoice and payment methods and help your customers become familiar with the concept.”
Preparing for Success
For Chris Murray, the process of helping clients get the most benefit from their AR software begins before the solution is even implemented, assessing the customer’s readiness and helping them develop adoption targets, in addition to supplying tangible support through things like guides, videos, and other training resources.
“Adopting a new solution is a significant investment of both time and money,” Murray said. “Clients deserve to get the value and desired outcomes from that investment. Things like advocating and advising them through business reviews, monthly touch points, platform optimization sessions, and ongoing monitoring of platform health and adoption are services that they should not only expect but demand from their provider.”
When it comes to ongoing customer support, Murray says that companies should look for providers who provide a quick response time when they have questions. They should also look for a provider whose service team embraces the idea that prevention outweighs cure, and takes a proactive approach to support services. This should involve regular account health checks, which will lead to actionable advice on how to best utilize the features of the software, to ensure that you are collecting at your most efficient, lowering DSO and optimizing cash flow.
“The relationship between a client and customer success manager begins with the onboarding process, but it can’t end there,” Murray said. “Customers should expect a provider who makes sure they continue to get maximum value from their solution for the entire lifetime of the service.”
By looking for a vendor that supplies you with the appropriate level of service and support, you can ensure that you always get the most from your accounts receivable software. That means a decrease in workload, an increase in cash flow, and an improved experience for your customers.
To learn more about the features to look for when selecting accounts receivable software, view YayPay’s newest toolkit ‘5 Features of the Perfect B2B Payment Process’.
