bezahl.de expands to service business: fully digital payment management - without cash
- Jalique Ehrbar
- May 4, 2022
- 4 min read
“Our goal is that in addition to sales, the service area in the car trade
fully digital without cash and analog tills.” sums up Lasse Diener, CEO
from bezahl.de, the plan of the Cologne FinTech startup for 2020.
After bezahl.de had already digitized payment processes in sales in 2019,
the current corona situation is accelerating the expansion to the service business.
Since 2018, NX Technologies has been offering the first payment management platform developed for the automotive trade with its main product bezahl.de. The central goal is the transformation of the payment processes into the digital world - both in the back office of the car dealership and in the receivables from the customer. Right from the start, the Cologne-based startup brought leading car dealer groups from Germany on board, who support the payment experts with insights into today's payment processes in car dealerships. "It is important to us that we always design and develop new products together with the market." Lasse Diener, founder of NX Technologies, describes the company's orientation. Since the start in summer 2018, over
20 of the top 100 car dealer groups in Germany decided to use bezahl.de in order to position themselves efficiently and future-oriented around payments.
Initially, bezahl.de was used to digitize payment processes in sales. When it became clear that the application would automate many of the tasks involved in managing payments, customers wanted to use bezahl.de for service as well. "Since merchants often process ten times as many payments in the service, it was logical that we expand our platform to this area at an early stage," says Lasse Diener. The central goal in service is to gradually replace analogue checkouts, including queues and cash, as well as open items, with a fully automated and digital process.
One thing is clear: due to the pandemic, contactless payment options are more in focus than ever. "Many car dealers approached us, especially due to the increased demand for pick-up and delivery services and the desire to protect employees and customers," says Diener. In order to also meet the needs of the market in the service area, bezahl.de has once again concluded so-called "development partnerships" with car dealership groups, which provide support with insights and feedback. These companies included major VW partners such as Moll, Autoschmitt and Mense, as well as the BMW dealership in Brandenburg. The result is an end-to-end digital process from the payment request through processing to allocation.
But how does bezahl.de work for the service?
Digital payment request
The process starts with the service invoice, in which a digital payment invitation with the PDF invoice attached is sent to the customer at the same time. In many cases, this step alone is intended to save the printing or posting of the invoice. In addition, open items should be settled earlier than before. "Even billing customers who have inevitably become customers, for example because the bill was not written early, are served much better and faster with the digital payment invitation than by post. If I receive a payment request by e-mail including the choice between different payment methods, I pay it faster than opening a letter and typing in bank details," summarizes Elena Trapp, who is responsible for expanding bezahl.de to the service process step together.
Contactless payment
Without registering, the customer now has the option of paying the service bill before or when picking it up using their own smartphone. Due to the lower sums in the service area, bezahl.de has now also integrated everyday payment methods such as PayPal and credit cards. In this way, online-savvy customers can pay their service bills as they would in the online shop, which is also very popular with pick-up and delivery services. In addition, bezahl.de would like to offer so-called "tablet smart cash registers" in the short term. Traditional customers should be able to pay by EC card or credit card by entering the invoice number on a tablet without having to queue at a checkout. In this way, several customers can be served contactless and cashless.
Simple handover of keys
When keys are issued, bezahl.de shows each invoice with a live payment status, so that both the customer and the employee in the dealership are informed about the current status of the payment at all times. In the future, a 24/7 key handover with key boxes should also be possible.
Automated open item lists
Basically, bezahl.de would like to significantly minimize the number of open items. Since the company offers transparency about all invoices with live payment status at all times, the management of open items is simplified. Wherever lists are prepared manually today, bezahl.de makes it possible to see at a glance which receivables are overdue. Furthermore, bezahl.de has developed an intelligent receivables management system in which customers receive a payment reminder by e-mail in a cycle to be defined by the car dealer, for example every three days. Only if a customer has not paid after several reminders can the retailer initiate further steps instead of making time-consuming phone calls or sending reminders by post right from the start.
bezahl.de not only wants to provide support with its smart service solution during the Corona period, but also wants to change the payment process in the automotive trade in the long term. If you are interested in video product training from bezahl.de, the bezahl.de team is always available for you. This is how digitization can help!
Contact:
Johannes Wolff
johannes.wolff@bezahl.de
+49 (0)221 177383 80
Elena Trapp
elena.trapp@bezahl.de
+49 (0)221 177383 80
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