Avoid Late Payments with Due Date Reminders

Today’s customers expect to pay their invoices with the same ease, convenience, and positive experience they’ve come to expect from any other digital interaction with a company. As an invoice sender, you have everything to gain by meeting those expectations—and a lot to lose if you don’t. That’s why it’s important to help customers pay on time and avoid the negative experience that comes with missed due dates and payment reminders. The question is: how?

The Risk of Losing Customers Increases with Payment Reminders

Traditionally, the payment experience has been a somewhat neglected part of the customer journey. Yet, it can significantly impact long-term customer loyalty, especially when the experience is negative.

And when is the payment experience at its worst? Most likely, when the customer fails to pay before the due date, they receive a reminder, even more so if that reminder includes a late fee. Research has shown that in some cases, the risk of losing a customer to a competitor is up to six times higher if they’ve missed a payment and received a reminder.

Improve the Payment Experience and Prevent Churn

Of course, solving this issue is easier said than done, as the reasons behind late payments vary from case to case. What we do know, however, is that a common explanation is simply that the customer hasn’t read the invoice, forgot about it, or missed the due date.

That’s why Billogram developed what we call due date reminders—a gentle nudge that comes at no extra cost to the customer. The reminder is sent via email on the same day the invoice is due, if no payment has been registered by the time incoming bank payments are processed. It’s a softer type of reminder that gives the customer a chance to pay before any formal (and potentially fee-based) payment reminders are issued.

Even if a reminder sent after the due date doesn’t include a fee, the tone is often strict, implying that the customer is now late with their payment. A softer reminder, on the other hand, is more about catching the customer’s attention in time, letting them know there’s still a window to act, but that it’s time to do so. This helps the customer avoid a late payment and the negative experience of receiving a harsher reminder. For you as a sender, it also reduces the risk that the customer will start looking elsewhere.

More Customers Pay on Time with Due Date Reminders

Like nearly all of the features developed within the Billogram platform, due date reminders are designed to make life easier for invoice senders and recipients. The feature is included as an optional setting for all invoice senders using Billogram and comes at no additional cost.

Since we launched the feature a few years ago, the response from our customers has been overwhelmingly positive. And the results speak for themselves: on average, 55% of recipients who receive a due date reminder make their payment within two banking days.

Wilhelm von Sydow