A recent study from
NACHA (the electronic payments association) revealed that, “49% of
all recurring bills” are made through ACH structures.
The
association indicated that the majority of these payments continue to
be made in the consumer
to business
realm, with a slight increase in business
to business usage.
The
association was quite surprised to discover that although many large
corporations have incorporated ACH payments for their customers, they
still continue to pay their own vendors with paper checks.
Worse,
small businesses are lagging behind in making ACH
payments available to their own customers and to their vendors, with
less than 28% taking advantage of this option.
According
to Wesley
Yuhn, who
is recognized for his work in financial services and solutions, the
main reason that small businesses fail to utilize ACH direct deposit
for their payroll either because they believe they are too small or
they believe that the cost doesn’t warrant the expense.
However, ACH is not
just for payroll; the options that it creates for potential clients
and customers to use alternative methods of payment makes up for the
costs.
Are
You Limiting Your Sales Potential?
There
are plenty of articles about providing customers with a positive
experience--- whether you have an online store, a brick-and-mortar
store or a combination of both. Part of creating a good customer
experience is making it as easy as possible to buy your products or
services.
Those
businesses who limit the type of payment that they accept are also
limiting their own sales potential.
It
is extremely surprising that many businesses remain under the
impression that only retail companies need to consider expanding
their type of payments.
Contrary to popular belief tool companies,
lumber companies and wholesalers can also take advantage of selling
online as well as accepting paper checks, eChecks, credit cards and
checks by phone as well as establishing automatic invoicing and
recurring payments for their clients.
Using
an ACH payment solution, paper checks can be verified, converted to
electronic debits nearly instantly and deposited to your account in a
matter of moments. Some companies are known to use a system called
Check
21
that allows you to scan a paper check into the system. It also allows
you access to funds on the same day.
Increasing
Your Opportunities
With
the holidays just around the corner, any marketing specialist will be
suggesting that you consider using mobile bill pay, electronic
payments via email or mobile phone and click2call options for online
orders.
In
order to accept payments via mobile phone, for example, in a
click2call advertising strategy, it is important to use an ACH
service to protect your customer’s information and make it easier
to do business with you.
One
question that is repeatedly asked is how a company paying
electronically can produce the necessary paperwork for their
accountant and tax records. Regardless of the type of electronic
payment a customer prefers to use, receipts are immediately sent with
all the information needed to satisfy their CPAs and government
offices.
One
of the top reasons to use ACH is because all transactions can be
stored on a flash drive, in the Cloud or a virtual storage facility
instead of one physical paper for the next ten years or more.
