PYMNTS Data: Half of Consumers Would Switch Providers For Better Bill Payment Experience

Although there are many ways to pay monthly bills, consumers often have a preferred channel for their recurring bills. Most consumers now pay via digital channels and expect transactions to be easy and convenient. As a result, service providers that do not provide an optimized bill pay experience risk losing these customers.

A key takeaway from our research is the strong link between convenience and customer satisfaction. As with other digital transactions, digital-savvy consumers, who tend to be younger and have higher incomes, expect a frictionless payment experience. An improved bill payment offering can help service providers increase customer satisfaction and engagement.

PYMNTS data finds that 40% of consumers say they are “very” or “extremely” interested in such an improved billing experience, with younger and affluent consumers the most likely to do so. Among those who are “very” or “extremely” interested in an improved billing experience, more than half are likely to change their billing providers.

These are a few of the findings uncovered in Streamlining Bill Payment: How Frictionless Experiences Drive Customer Engagement. PYMNTS surveyed 2,913 U.S. consumers from Dec. 10 to Dec. 20, 2021, to examine consumers’ satisfaction with their preferred methods of paying recurring monthly bills. We sought to learn more about how providing a holistic billing offering can help service providers retain customers who otherwise might switch to a competitor that offers a better, more convenient bill payment experience.

More key findings from the study include:

• While consumers digitally pay 85% of all monthly bills, they use automatic payment for more than one-third of recurring monthly bills for services. At 39%, automatic payment at the due date is a common way to pay, whether via a bank’s bill payment system or the biller’s website, followed by 17% of consumers paying manually via the biller’s website. Eleven percent of consumers pay via the biller’s mobile app. Consumers are also highly interested in convenience factors such as making instant payments, splitting payments and paying through alternative channels, such as digital wallets, that legacy systems don’t support.

• Convenience and consumer satisfaction are clearly linked, but there still are areas in which consumers are less than satisfied with their preferred payment method. Forty-one percent of consumers cite ease and convenience, and 23% cite faster and instant payments as the most important reason to choose a digital channel. Highlighting some of the key payment frictions that impact consumer satisfaction when paying recurring monthly bills, 22% of consumers reporting problems using digital channels want to be able to split payments with multiple people. Other top issues include a lack of options for paying bills, at 20%, a lack of instant payments at 17% and that payments take longer to process, at 13%.

• Four out of 10 consumers would be interested in using service providers that offer an “improved billing experience.” The methods consumers use to pay their recurring monthly bills can present frictions that impact customer satisfaction. Consumers are also apt to change providers if the provider does not offer their preferred payment method as an option to pay their recurring monthly bills. Covering various aspects of the bill payment process, an improved billing experience would allow consumers to pay using whatever payment method they prefer. In such an offering, the biller also would provide real-time access to usage and account information, including notices of unusual account activity. PYMNTS’ research finds that 40% of respondents say they are “very” or “extremely” interested in an improved billing experience.

To learn more about how service providers can drive customer engagement with an improved billing offering, download the report.