Spotlight: Revenue Protection for Telecoms
Revenue Management using TimelyBill's Dunning and Collections Modules
What is Dunning?
In telecom billing, dunning refers to the process of attempting to collect payment for outstanding balances or unpaid bills. This may involve sending reminders or notifications to the customer, as well as taking additional steps, such as suspending service if the bill remains unpaid.
Dunning ↗️ is a common practice in the telecommunications industry, as it helps to ensure that companies are able to recover the costs of providing service to their customers.What is Collection?
In most cases, customers will pay their bills before the specified due date. However, there may be customers who do not pay their bills. In this case, service providers must take some action to rectify the situation and collect the outstanding balance owed.
The collections process ↗️ tracks past due account receivables, sends notifications to the customer, and triggers actions in the absence of payments after a specific due date.
With just a little configuration, organizations can protect their revenue by using the following methods:
- Trigger email reminders to customers
- Create letters for printing
- Suspend services
- Change account status to collections
- Write-off accounts
- General ledger transactions
Example of Dunning & Collections in the Telecom World
Consider a customer named Sarah, who has an overdue account with a service provider. Sarah's payment was due on August 1st, and she still needs to make the payment.
Dunning Process:
- Initial Reminder: On August 5th, an automated email was sent to Sarah, reminding her about the unpaid bill and the due date. The email is polite and informative, highlighting the importance of timely payment to avoid service disruption.
- Follow-up Reminder: On August 12th, another reminder is sent to Sarah via SMS. This time, the message is stronger, indicating that her services could be temporarily suspended if the payment is not made by August 20th.
- Final Reminder: As the payment still hasn't been received, a final reminder is sent on August 19th. The message stresses the situation's urgency, notifying Sarah that her services are scheduled for suspension unless the payment is settled by August 25th.
Collections Process:
- Pre-Collections: Sarah has still not responded to the reminders and her outstanding payment, so she has been transferred to the collections department. A collections agent reaches out to her via phone to discuss the situation. The agent explains the implications of non-payment and tries to understand Sarah's circumstances.
- Payment Negotiation: During the call, Sarah explained that she experienced unexpected financial difficulties and could not pay the full amount immediately. The collections agent offers her the option to set up a payment plan, allowing her to pay the overdue amount in smaller, manageable installments over the next few months.
TimelyBill supports dunning at the account level, whereby all overdue amounts for an account across several invoices can be handled by a single dunning action. Our software gives CSPs the power to improve relationships with customers and enhance existing revenue streams.
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