Small Business Telecoms Companies: How Fastpay Can Help You

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Your client list is expanding, your team is growing and your turnover is looking healthier every year.

As a small business telecoms company, you’re delivering the best products and service to your clients, helping them perform efficiently as a modern tech-enabled workforce.

But what about your own business? Can you tick off everything on the digital must-have list? You’ve got your communications covered but what about the way you accept regular client payments?

If you’re still using invoicing methods from the pre-digital dark ages such as Standing Orders or cheques, it’s time for change.

Direct Debit for SME Success

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Collecting payments by Direct Debit is the ideal solution for a small business telecoms company like yours: flexible, reliable and secure, it will move your growth into the next gear.

And making the switch could boost your turnover by an impressive 300%.

How? By simplifying, streamlining and sending your customer satisfaction levels sky-high.

Direct Debit’s popularity is growing apace. 4.2 billion Direct Debit transactions were made in 2017 and you can use its payment power to add to your own success story.

Once only available to larger, corporate businesses who paid banks many thousands of pounds to manage their schemes, technological advancements mean SMEs, organisations, partnerships and charities can take Direct Debit payments.

A Direct Debit bureau like FastPay makes it easy by offering straightforward solutions to collect money quickly and efficiently. Their Managed Service is perfect for smaller companies who don’t already have a Service User Number (SUN) or can’t get one from their bank.

Outsourcing to the collection professionals means there’s no need to set up your own expensive scheme or to get approval from your bank. It allows you to focus on developing your business instead of wasting precious time and resources chasing money.

How Do You Set Up A Direct Debit Scheme?

Setting up a Managed Service scheme to accept Direct Debit payments is easy:

  1. FastPay provides you with a personalised SUN number
  2. Your customer completes a Direct Debit instruction form online, over the phone or on a paper mandate
  3. You send FastPay their account details, the amounts you wish to debit from your customers and the nominated collection date
  4. FastPay prepares and submits those details to Bacs for collection and your customer’s account will be debited
  5. The amount will be credited to a Client Trust Account FastPay holds in your name
  6. FastPay pays the money into your bank account once the funds have cleared
  7. You check your account and are reassured that payments have been made successfully

How Does Direct Debit Make Such an Impact?

How much cash are you owed by late payees? For small businesses who rely on Standing Orders, cheques or card payments, this figure can reach many thousands.

The latest figures from Bacs, the company that runs Direct Debit, show that UK SMEs are facing a total bill of £2.16 billion to chase late payments.

This accounting black hole can seriously damage your cashflow, customer relationships and even the entire future of your business.

Direct Debit can remove these threats by providing a predictable source of income: security and reliability for you and your customers. Put simply, it puts you in control.

Business Benefits That Bring Results

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One of the most transformative benefits you’ll enjoy is permanent positive cashflow: clients will pay you a set amount on a set date, enabling you to predict when and how much cash will be in your account.

The higher the percentage of customers who set up a Direct Debit, the more secure your cashflow will be. Some businesses remove all other payment options, others see take-up rates as high as 90%.

Both approaches result in a reduction in late payments, freeing your accounts team from the time-consuming task of chasing customers and stopping your bank balance from teetering near the red.

Just as you do for your small telecoms business clients, FastPay makes digital integration possible. Use a specially-designed API to connect your billing system to your bureau’s software or you can fully integrate the Xero accounting app or Sage billing platform with FastPay’s processing system.

The result is a highly-automated, seamless process that gives you increased payment efficiency, reduced admin time and a real-time cash overview.

Digital logic will be at the heart of your new set-up, removing the need for manual reconciliation and significantly reducing the risk of data entry errors.

And on the rare occasions that issues do arise, you’ll be aware of them immediately thanks to regular reports sent straight to your inbox. These give you an overview of all payments, including successful ones, so you can swiftly react to any cancellations, bounces or failures.

This comprehensive information makes day-to-day admin a breeze: your accounts department will be free to focus on developing customer relationships and improving service.

FastPay’s Managed Service can handle as many Direct Debit transactions as your business requires. A transparent fee structure includes volume discounts, so you could pay as little as 10p per transaction. As your small telecoms company grows, you’ll benefit from even greater value for money.

Customer Benefits That Boost Loyalty

Your customers will instantly notice the Direct Debit difference. By offering them the most efficient and flexible payment method available, they’ll view you as a helpful, hassle-free company that works hard to relieve their own admin burden.

Once they’ve filled in their mandate, either online, over the phone or on paper, they can relax and enjoy your service: their payment is being taken care of by you and your bureau.

They trust that you will take the right amount from their account at the right time and that you’ll inform them of any changes to their payment plan. And you’ll be free to communicate with them about more customer-friendly topics than potentially embarrassing money matters.

They’ll also be protected by the Direct Debit Guarantee, a comprehensive range of safeguards that makes it the most secure form of payment available.

Gifting them extra time, convenience and security will boost loyalty and make your reputation rocket.

Choosing a Direct Debit Managed Service for your small business telecoms company will revolutionise the way you collect client payments, bringing you in line with your competitors and future-proofing your business.

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