Answer Your Customers’ Call for Recurring Autopay: A solution for more predictable revenue collection

Self-service bill pay is a hot topic right now. Government payment vendors are improving the technology your customers use for faster checkout, reducing in-person visits to a cashier, and offering more convenient ways to stay current on important debts like property taxes, parking permits, and city water bills.

By making recurring government payments easier to complete and harder to forget, you incentivize your customers to enroll in options that reduce the costs per payment — like paperless billing and payments by bank account — and make your revenue collection more reliable and predictable.

The case for recurring autopay is clear, but not all solutions are created equal. Here are a few attributes to include in your government or municipal utility autopay solution. 

Payments optimized for the device you’re using

It’s the 21st century, and there’s no excuse for clunky web payments that either pare down functionality on a mobile device or show tiny text with the need for endless scrolling. 

Mobile-first design ensures web payments render the way that looks the best for the device you’re on, whether that’s a desktop, smartphone, or tablet. With full functionality on any mobile device, you build your customers’ trust that they’re making the right payment to the right entity. They will be more inclined to store payment information since they can be confident they’re working with a vendor that’s using the latest secure technology. 

Allow people to store multiple payment methods

Let customers securely save payment methods in a digital wallet, including credit cards, debit cards, and bank accounts for eCheck payments. Having multiple options for checkout supports faster transactions even when one method expires. Customers can set a recurring autopayment using a preferred payment method, and they can easily edit their autopay settings to use a different method when needed.

Bill on a customer’s due date 

Direct, real-time integrations to your underlying source system can support automatic payments on a customer’s billing due date. For instance, the City of Lawrence uses this functionality to power autopayments for city water billing. This setup lets customers avoid late payments or penalties, and it ensures that they are only charged for their current amount due, since the payment technology pulls directly from the source of truth about their account.

Send automatic reminders for customer convenience

Customers will appreciate automatic notifications that help them stay on top of payments. For instance, CityBase recurring billing will send customers email notifications for receipts, upcoming payment reminders, and notices that a credit card being used for autopayment will expire soon. When customers make changes to their profile, like resetting their password or turning autopay on or off, they will also receive confirmations automatically on their profile and via email. 

Let customers easily view and edit autopayments

Give your customers the confidence to set an autopayment by making it easy to view, modify, or cancel upcoming payments. When customers log in to a secure city profile, they should immediately see their upcoming bills, clearly understand if autopay is on or off, and be able to change information like payment method or billing address in a few easy steps. 

By giving this power to your customers, there’s no downside for them to commit to simplified recurring payments for their government bills.