A competitive market

The UK mobile market is a competitive environment with four operators and 75.1 million mobile connections, meaning that customer retention has never been more important. O2 is the commercial brand of Telefónica UK Limited and is a leading digital communications company in the UK, running 2G, 3G and 4G networks across the region. To retain this competitive position, O2 is focused on offering its customers a high-quality experience. An important part of this process is ensuring that the payments and collections channel is consistent with the rest of the customer journey and brand ‘experience’.

The payments and collections process

Mobile operators encourage customers to pay by direct debit. Often, customers who do not opt for direct debit fall into arrears, for either financial reasons or simply due to oversight. Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) regulations in the UK direct organisations to identify and support customers who require financial assistance.

WebPay

In 2017, O2 wanted to provide a new and convenient payment channel to customers who had fallen into arrears and did not have direct debit set up or a registered card. This would help to increase collections payments at an earlier stage as well as improve customer sentiment by avoiding potential payment disputes. O2 worked with its long-term payments and collections partner, Digital Tech Solutions, to develop and launch a new and fully Payment Card Industry (PCI) compliant collections channel – ‘WebPay’. Digital Tech Solutions has been working with O2 for over 14 years, providing digital collection and payment services and advice to O2, consisting of automated voice, SMS and web payments. WebPay is a one-click, personalised payment channel that delivers mobile and web-based options for bills payments and collections. Customers are contacted via SMS with a unique URL, taking them into the O2 personalised payment portal. All payments are processed through a secure, PCI Level 1 accredited payment gateway. Customers enter their card payment details, either manually, via card scan or autofill dependent on the device and preference. The customer then receives notification of their payment via SMS. Previously, customers were encouraged to make a call or log in to an online portal to make a payment. This call to action was time consuming for the customer and resulted in a large volume of transfers to the call centre.

Results

Within the first 12 months of operation, 27% of all cash collected is successfully made via WebPay, making it the most popular payment channel for customers without a registered card. Customers without a registered card entering collections have shown an increase in unique payments by 39% and cash collected has increased by 40%. The average WebPay payment is the one of the highest of all of O2’s payment channels. Calls transferred to the contact centre have decreased by over 3000 calls per month, relieving highly skilled agents to concentrate on having more quality conversations with their customers.