Companies are considering permanent remote or hybrid office models for their employees and are trying to use technology adoption to make digital customer interactions easier. Those that came to this realization early on now have a head start on the consumer preference trends driving business and are further along on the road to recovery.

In fact, adopting technology to serve consumers is becoming more than just a perk. Companies that don’t innovate the way they do business risk falling behind the competition.

It’s important as an extended business office to prove you have your clients (and their consumers) in mind. You can use digital solutions to streamline office processes, make payment collection more efficient and better serve consumers making payments.

Offering digital tools your clients don’t have can also elevate you above your competition. Even before last year’s digital necessities, innovation was on the minds of many business leaders.

Your clients expect you to treat their consumers with care and respect while you’re representing them. This is not only a good business practice to maintain client loyalty, it’s an excellent way to collect more payments.

Providing a good customer experience can mean many things, but here are a few areas where technology adoption can help you improve satisfaction:

• Simple, branded payment portals - to create a seamless experience for consumers, consider an online payment portal that looks and feels like an extension of a client’s website. The portal should be simple to use, easy to find, and be branded with the logo and colors of the company you are representing.

• Preferred communication options - providing more options for communication, including text message and email, can create a better user experience. If consumers can choose a more convenient communication channel to interact with you, they are more likely to resolve their bills.

• Faster payment workflows - using a digital communication tool can speed up the time it takes to collect payments, request electronic signatures and more. Using a faster method to complete these tasks will make consumers happier about their interactions and more willing to resolve accounts.

Improving portions of the user experience is a good first step in adopting technology for your business. To fully understand how people interact with you, though, consider auditing the entire customer (or patient) journey.

Digital customer journey mapping helps you to understand every step a consumer takes from the moment they learn about you to the time they make a payment. Take into account points along the way where paths might diverge.

Some may, for instance, research your company and immediately try to pay their bill. Others might validate your company’s identity online and then choose to call an agent to discuss their statement.

Analyze all the points a customer might reach during their journey. This will give you a better understanding of the friction they face. Once you realize what may be stopping consumers from making payments, you can explore which digital tools are right for your EBO.

Once you’ve examined your business, you’re likely to find many areas where payments are slipping through the cracks. Extended business office, Assistentcy, LLC, did an in-depth analysis of their own process and shared several reasons they identified that cause payments to fail.

They cited consumers not having access to payment information or taking the collection call during an inconvenient time, fear of fraud, and hurdles during the self-pay process as main causes of failed payments.

To overcome these issues, they implemented PDCflow’s FLOW Technology, which led to double the credit card payments previously received, greater trust in their business and fewer payments abandoned during self-payment.

• Flexibility - Adopting a digital communication tool like FLOW gives you the flexibility to interact with consumers through the channels they prefer. Unlimited templates allow you to tailor each interaction, enhancing the consumer experience.

• Ease of use - This simple, all-in-one workflow tool allows agents to combine multiple tasks (collecting eSignatures, sending documents, collecting a payment or requesting photo uploads) into a single interaction. Choose whichever components apply and send the FLOW to your consumer through text message or email. The single workflow makes it quick and easy to complete the steps you require – even while still on the phone with an agent.

• Fast adoption - Depending on your business needs, FLOW Technology can be set up and ready to use in a matter of days, or even hours.

Learn more ways your Extended Business Office can create a better patient experience while accomplishing your end goal of increasing revenue collected. Download the EBO Guide today.