When running a business, one of the biggest and harshest obstacles between a potential customer and your service is what’s keeping them from paying you. In some cases, installing more efficient or convenient payment options can drastically increase your chances of turning a potential customer into an actual customer. And one such option is via text message.
As per Business Dictionary, part of billing a customer entails providing an invoice for initiating the sale – typically, this used to mean attaching a legal piece of paper alongside a purchase, or at the end of a service, for safe keeping. But that’s not necessarily the norm anymore – today, the Internet allows us to send and receive digital invoices, equipped with a serial number that makes an invoice online just as valid as the printed original. But what if Internet access presents an obstacle to your chosen demographic, and you can’t rely on printed invoices either?
That’s where SMS invoices come into play, and become extremely handy.
What is an SMS Invoice?
Just like how printed invoices and digital invoices detail the specifics of a purchase, from the number of items or services to be paid for, to the total amount, tax costs, timestamps and more, an SMS invoice condenses and sends all the relevant purchase information before a sale and sends them to the customer.
SMS invoicing makes for a great alternative to other digital solutions or printed invoices because simply put, nearly everyone has a cellphone number. This is especially true in India, where around 680 million people have a mobile phone as per Statista.
Conversely, only about 375 million Indians have access to the Internet, the statistics website notes. This is a significant difference, enough to warrant careful consideration.
How SMS Invoicing Works
Now that we’ve established that there’s a definite precedent for utilizing SMS invoicing in India, it’s time to tackle the actual process. Here’s a simple step-by-step to get your company started on providing SMS invoicing:
1. Find the right partner.
As with any online payment service, SMS invoicing is typically provided as a single or packaged service by payment providers, like us here at PayU Money. It’s an automated service, which means that everything is controlled through a web-based application rather than an actual phone. The messages are still sent out to the phone network, but the information is stored on your company’s server.
2. Setup the process.
It depends on what payment provider you use, but typically, getting SMS invoicing to work for you is extremely simple. You’ll be provided with a number of templates to choose from to edit the manner in which the crucial information is provided, and a web server is dedicated to processing transactions and sending out invoices where applicable.
Once your customer receives their invoice, they have the option of accessing a generated link automatically created by your payment solution to pay their bills.
In conclusion:
By setting up an automatic SMS invoicing option for your business online, you can communicate with and effectively offer an expanded list of transaction options for customers to choose from, simplifying the process of buying your products or services on a customer’s end and making customer care less of an issue for your business.
The key, however, lies in working with the right provider. Here in India, you’ll be hard-pressed to find a better alternative to PayU Money.
Daina Martin is a freelance author and writes for a variety of online publications like Huffingtonpost,Sitepronews.com and etc.. She actively writes blogs and articles related to Eco-friendly resources,health and technology. When she’s not working, she likes to cook, dance and travel.
