Aliaswire, a provider of bill payment and credit solutions for businesses and banks, today announced new capabilities for utility clients in its DirectBiller platform and reported impressive growth in the number of payments being processed by utilities. The new features address the growing need for utilities to meet customer expectations for more modern and convenient payment methods, while also reducing their operating costs.

The company saw a 337% increase in the number of payments processed by utility companies on its DirectBiller platform over the last 12 months, with one natural gas provider processing over one million payments per month and continuing to grow volume at 12% month-over-month.

“When you have recurring billing relationships like utilities, the billing and payment experience becomes a critical touchpoint. In many cases, it may be the only one a utility has with a customer each month,” said Jed, Rice, CEO of Aliaswire. “Not only does that experience have a huge impact on customer satisfaction, but it can also create big operational inefficiencies without proficient systems and processes in place, as finance teams are then forced to manually handle payment receipt and reconciliation.”

DirectBiller optimizes the billing and payment experience for residential, commercial and non-consumption utility customers. The platform manages the entire end-to-end process from billing through payment reconciliation and encourages on-time payments by providing easy and secure ways for customers to receive and pay their utility bills. DirectBiller enables utilities to consolidate all payment channels on a single platform and integrates seamlessly with utilities’ ERP systems and their banks’ treasury management systems to streamline payment reconciliation. 

Key features in DirectBiller for Utilities

Bill Payment

·       Members of the same household can log in separately to make payments against their shared account

·       Multiple payment options (web, mobile, text, CSR, IVR, kiosk)

·       One-time payment and auto pay

·       Automated payment reminders

·       Multilingual IVR service that follows the same payment flows as web and mobile experiences

·       CSRs can provide one-time payment links via text or email to unenrolled customers

·       Customers can pay directly on DirectBiller’s hosted payer portal, or the payment experience can be embedded within a utility’s existing payment site via single sign-on or API

·       Real-time posting lets the utility and customer know immediately when payments have been posted to better manage service levels and terminations

Support for Multiple Divisions

For utilities with multiple lines of business, DirectBiller can support separate payment flows and websites. Reporting can be provided at the division level as well as a single consolidated view at the corporate level.

Flexible Card Processing and Fee Management

·       Support for different fee models for residential, commercial and non-consumption lines of business

·       Patented technology streamlines daily net settlement of surcharges and convenience fees.

·       Competitive “cost plus” interchange pricing, including Level 2/3 processing

Support for Non-Consumption Business

·       Full PDF presentment of complex and multi-page invoices

·       Multiple invoices can be grouped into a single payment transaction or processed individually

·       Payers can apply credit memos to invoices and pay net balance due