For your business offering payment via Direct Debit includes benefits such as:
- Low cost due to no investment required in Bacs software and fewer admin staff
- When using a Direct Debit bureau your trading name appears on the payer’s bank statement improving trust and credibility
- Payment is collected on time and for the right amount
- Paperless Direct Debits
- High security
- Increased success rate for payments; your account can automatically retry to take a Direct Debit payment should the first attempt fail
- Activity reports generated for you identifying unpaid, cancelled and amended Direct Debits.
For your customers benefits include:
- Quick sign up process online or offline
- Easy to setup and amend
- Knowledge of what is being taken out of their account and when
- Dependant on your service, the total amount can be spread across a period of time, making their purchase more affordable
- Customer protection via the Direct Debit guarantee
- Safe and secure payments
- No risk of falling behind on payments and therefore incurring a charge.
Whilst the benefits are clear for both the company and the customer, it can be challenging to persuade customers to pay via Direct Debit. Alongside showing the benefits of paying via Direct Debit, here are some ideas and incentives to encourage more of your customers to sign up to this payment method:
- Provide an initial reduction period if they sign up with Direct Debit payments within a certain time frame
- Send customers a gift voucher for a high end supermarket or department store
- Enter them for free in to a competition to win your service for free for a year, or even a lifetime!
- Donate to your chosen charity each time someone signs up to your service with Direct Debit