Lowell increases its payments and communicates more effectively with customers thanks to SMS with mobile invoice

Challenge: Lowell wanted to increase payments and communicate more effectively with customers

The credit management company Lowell, formerly known as Intrum Justitia, is one of Europe’s largest providers of debt collection services and has over 4,000 employees. In order to communicate more effectively with their customers and make it easier for them to settle unpaid invoices, they have adopted mobile invoicing provided by LINK Mobility – one of Nets’ many loyal partners.

“We received comments that debt collection companies were just like a mix between a call center and a sad post office – a stamp we certainly did not want to wear. We therefore chose to shift our focus and place more emphasis on improving the customer journey,” says Carl-Petter Udvang, business developer in Lowell.

In an increasingly digital world, the content of mailboxes around the country is being reduced, and today it is mostly only advertising and payment reminders that appear there – letters that Norwegians are often reluctant to open. In order to communicate more effectively with their customers and ensure that it would be easier for them to pay off their outstanding debts, Lowell reached out to Nets and LINK Mobility to find a solution.

Solution: Used the Mobile Invoice solution from LINK Mobility

LINK Mobility, one of Nets’ partners, is one of Europe’s leading players in mobile communication solutions. The company aims to simplify and streamline mobile interactions and modern conversations, and through mobile communication they offer global, fast and personal messages as an important tool for all dialogue between companies and their customers.

Easier for the customer to pay invoices

With the LINK Mobile Invoice solution, which has Nets’ checkout solution integrated, thousands of satisfied users can pay for goods and services online and send reminders to their customers via SMS to avoid unpaid invoices. The SMS contains a link that leads to a landing page that can be easily adapted to the individual company’s profile.

On this page, the customer gets the total amount and the option to choose between different payment methods, for example Visa, Mastercard, Vipps or bank payment. Simply explained, the solution makes it possible to send out invoices and reminders directly to the customer’s mobile phone, where the customer can quickly and easily pay directly there and then. Mobile Invoice has Nets’ checkout solution integrated, to give the customer maximum flexibility and freedom of choice when choosing a payment method.

“With Mobile Invoice, customers can pay the invoice when, where and how they want. They don’t have to think about KID numbers and choose which payment method they want to use. By entering into a partnership with Nets as our payment provider, we have managed to offer a very simple customer journey,” says Marius Røe, Head of Payment Solutions at LINK Mobility.

Result: More than one in three customers pays the invoice digitally, and the payment time has been reduced from 18 days to 45 minutes

In addition to mobile invoices being more environmentally friendly and cost-effective than traditional paper invoices, they also allow customers to pay on the go. Carl-Petter Udvang in Lowell says that more than one in three customers now pay their invoices digitally, and they find that their customers are satisfied with being able to receive invoices and pay via SMS.

“The phone is usually in our pocket, which gives us the opportunity to react quickly to important messages – whether it concerns a payment or a reminder. An SMS makes it easier for the customer to pay on the go, while at the same time you receive the money faster. With mobile invoices, we have improved the cash flow and reduced the payment time among our customers from 18 days to 45 minutes,” says Udvang.

He adds that:

“Mobile invoices are very frictionless, and there are no new interfaces to deal with. So to speak, everyone has Vipps, for example, and after you have paid, both we and the customer receive a confirmation immediately. There are also no KID numbers to think about, which simplifies the process for, among other things, the elderly with impaired vision.”

A solution with many areas of use

Marius Røe in LINK Mobility says that their solution can be used by companies in a number of areas, whether it is to charge for a digital product or service, collect a deposit or send payment reminders:

“Mobile Invoice can, for example, be used in no-show situations, where you can send out invoices to customers who do not turn up for agreed hairdresser/doctor appointments or workshop visits. Or it could be that you do car towing and want to charge a deposit before you send out the tow truck, so that you are covered if the customer runs away before you arrive on site. The solution can also be used to send an SMS to remind people to pay a membership fee, which the Red Cross has had success.”

Vipps is particularly popular

In Lowell, they have discovered that Norwegians are particularly excited about the possibility of being able to pay with Vipps. This is in line with the findings in Nets’ e-commerce report, which shows that the app is steadily increasing in popularity in line with consumers’ desire for a faster and easier shopping experience.

“We see that Vipps is the clearly preferred channel for smaller amounts. 90 per cent of our customers pay amounts below NOK 5,000 with Vipps, while they like to use their bank card for larger sums,” says Carl-Petter.

With Nets and LINK Mobility, Lowell has two solid and reliable partners at its back, who are constantly developing their solutions in line with the users’ needs. All processing of payments in LINK Mobile Invoice also takes place in a secure manner, since all transactions are handled and authorized by Nets.

Are you experiencing problems with late payments, or perhaps payments that never arrive? Then mobile invoice can be a good solution for you. Contact salg@linkmobility.com and refer to Nets for a good deal!

Carl-Petter and Marius have participated as guests in a webinar held under the auspices of Nets, where they talk about SMS payment and mobile billing in more detail. If you didn’t catch it, you can watch the entire webinar recorded (in Norwegian) here. The webinarprovides several  tips on how to make the best use of the solution to communicate more effectively with your customers and get paid faster.