Know your customers and what works best for them, so you can help them get the most of their experience as they journey through your AR process. The better your customer journey, the greater the likelihood you will retain the customer and build a strong relationship.
These 5 steps will help you map your customer AR journey.
Customer Practices
There is no cookie-cutter design to use as a map. Identify the practices of your customers that reflect the way they go through AR. A customer that pays on time and digitally through your self-serve portal will have different practices that define its AR journey than a customer that is a collection problem or pays by check.
Stages of Journey
After identifying your customer practices, determine the stages of the customer journey through AR. Everyone needs a credit review at some point. After that the stages can vary depending on customer practices. Customers that pay electronically or pay late will have different stages than customers that pay by check or on time.
Customer Touch Points
Knowing your customer touch points is key to optimizing the experience through AR. Map your customer touch points so you know the parts of the AR process that are essential to optimizing the customer experience. Customers that use your portal will have different touch points than customers that pay by check.
Know What Motivates Customers
Determine the motives behind customer behavior so you can identify the best way to maximize the customer experience on the journey through AR. For example, internal and external factors can motivate customer behavior. Internally, practices such as payment policies and manual systems can affect AR habits. Externally, outside events such as the pandemic can change their way of doing business and payment habits.
Customer Behavior is Dynamic
Customer motivations and actions change over time. For example, the sudden change to remote work was adapted by many customers to survive in the new normal. If your company didn’t proactively change to adapt to this new way of doing business, you probably made it hard for customers to do business with you. However, if you proactively changed and provided a self-service portal to facilitate the digital solutions needed for remote work, your customers are probably happy with their AR journey and experience.
Digital Solutions
Accounts receivable and accounts payable cloud-based solutions with customer/vendor portals and digital processes keep vendors and customers connected whether they work remotely or not.
With a connected accounting solution for your accounts receivable and accounts payable teams to coordinate work with customers and vendors, you can go digital and enjoy the benefits of office automation.
Lockstep, a leader in cloud-based connected accounting solutions, can help you boost productivity and optimize cash flow with:
- Digital Onboarding – Collect master data directly from your customers and vendors
- Accounting Inbox – Make it easy to divvy up work and track progress
- Smart Automation – Automate menial task with accounting integration
- Online Accounts – Give customers and vendors online access to their accounts
Lockstep is an experienced software partner that can help you increase efficiency and accelerate cash flow.
If you would like to learn more about how you can benefit from connected accounting solutions, please contact Lockstep at www.lockstep.io
