Handling Student Payments More Efficiently
Getting students to pay their tuition on time is challenging in normal times. During the COVID-19 pandemic, new barriers have arisen to receiving and processing these payments—and many other types of payments–quickly and efficiently. Despite efforts to work remotely to avoid spread of the virus, business officer staff still must come to campus to process and deposit checks. This can be stressful for students who want to make sure their payments were received on time. If your school uses a payment vendor or bank to receive and process its transactions, many students and families prefer to use traditional payment methods. It is important to promote the security and easeof-use provided with online payments.
Changing the culture of institutional payers is complex and requires clear and concise communications with both internal and external customers. How an institution describes options and communicates its preferences and expectations will set the tone for success or failure.
Maintaining quality customer service and enhancing cash flow is crucial to educational institutions, particularly during troubled times. Colleges and universities should be looking at existing processes to identify opportunities for improvements and efficiencies. To help your institution find solutions to enhance customer service, streamline cumbersome processes, and improve cash flow, please see our recent industry paper on Cashiering: Migrating from Cash and Checks to Digital Payments.
Want to improve your digital payment adoption rate?
Consider these steps:
- Examine current payment patterns to find opportunities
- Investigate business relationships with banks and payment vendors and if there are best practice solutions that your institution is not utilizing
- Review your customer communications to assure that messaging is clear, concise, and accurate
