3 Reasons to use federal funding for one-stop kiosks

This month, the federal government released the second and final round of American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funding for state and local governments. Many local governments are using federal funding to enhance self-service technology for their customers who pay city and county bills in person. 

Customers who pay in person have a larger burden than most when it comes to satisfying important obligations. They may be underbanked, without access to pay online. Some may travel long distances to pay for things like utility bills, permits, and taxes, with the added stress of making it to City Hall or a payment center before the building closes for the day.

Reliable and secure self-service kiosks can support these customers by letting them pay at a time and place that works for them.

• Kiosks offer 24/7 service for bills paid by cash, checks, and card
• Locations can span an entire community, giving customers more access to pay bills in their own neighborhoods
• One-stop kiosks can process payments across a city and county, as well as local utility providers — so customers can pay all their bills in a single visit.

Hear from Greg Weppler, Senior Product Manager at CityBase, on why one-stop kiosks are a good investment in your customers and your operations. 

1. Enhanced Customer Convenience
Customers can pay all their bills in a single visit to a one-stop kiosk. CityBase technology is cloud-based and uses real-time integrations to source systems. This allows multiple city and county departments to have payments on the same machine. You can even collaborate with regional utility companies to include other bills. 

Real-time lookup and posting helps customers understand what they owe, allows them to satisfy an obligation 24/7, and automatically reconciles the funds to the right department.

2. Higher Adoption
By including multiple bills on a single kiosk, you’ve incentivized your customers to pay by kiosk time and again. A customer familiar with paying their utility bill on a kiosk every month will know to visit that same kiosk when they also need to renew their annual parking permit, for example.

3. Bigger Return on Investment
By sharing kiosk hardware, the cities, counties, and utilities who partner for a one-stop kiosk network can share costs for things like armored vehicle services. Since you’ll see a higher adoption rate, your costs per transaction will also be lower.