Government entities – housing authorities, agencies, and other government institutions, serve communities and populations of numerous types of people. And with each of these people comes different needs, financial situations, and backgrounds. And with payments for these people, there are several features to be on the lookout for in an efficient and optimal government payment system. Below, we will look at a few.
1. More Payment Options
Offering more than one payment option is essential for government entities. While most Americans do have smartphones that allow them to make payments with mobile payment apps, still, not every American has access to a smartphone.
Offering walk-in payments and IVR payments in addition to other payment methods can allow different segments of the population with varying incomes to make payments through methods that most match their needs.
2. Convenient Payment Options
Making payments more convenient is closely aligned with the point above, offering more payment options. Municipalities and government agencies that offer a variety of payment types give customers more opportunities to make payments – convenience.
Government payment systems that utilize payments by IVR, mobile payment applications, and other similar payment types allow clients to pay any time they want. With these types of payment methods, payments can be made 24 hours a day and seven days a week.
Providing convenient payment methods has also been shown to reduce calls made to call centers and can save companies time and money.
3. Better Security
As we have mentioned in our other blogs about efficient payment platforms, security is a critical part of payment technologies. We aren’t just making assumptions here either. Daily news reports of security breaches through phishing, ransomware, telephone scams and other nefarious acts prove that security should be a top focus of payment gateway design.
Additionally, our own private studies and surveys have shown that security is the top concern for both merchants and consumers when it comes to making digital payments. And with government payment systems, security couldn’t be more important.
Government agencies and entities use and house endless amounts of sensitive private data – personal information on people – data that must be protected.
4. Multilingual Support
As we wrote in our last blog, government payment systems and payment platforms that support multiple languages can be very beneficial. In government, this feature can be very valuable as many Americans speak Spanish, and other languages as their first language.
Our new mobile-first payment application, PayWeb30 comes ready to serve Spanish communities right out of the box. And not only does our new payment platform support Spanish, but with the assistance of Google Translation, PayWeb360 can support many other languages as well.
5. ADA Compliant Government Payment Systems
ADA compliance is critical for websites, mobile applications, and payment systems. And as you could imagine, when an organization must make payment options available to everyone in a city, community, or housing community, corners can’t be cut with ADA compliance. So, any county, city, or state offering payment solutions should always choose a government payment solution that works for everyone.
6. Recurring Payment Functionality
Recurring payment functionality or automated payments allow customers to set a date for payments to be automatically drafted from their accounts. This type of payment feature helps increase on-time payments. This means more on-time payments improving cash flow.
Recap: Must-haves for Effective Government Payment Solutions
In this blog, we talked about several features that make for an effective and efficient government payment system – payment solutions that can meet the needs of the diverse populations within counties, cities, and states.
Multiple payment options, security, recurring payment functionality, and compliance are just a few of the features that we highly recommend for payment platforms that are used by government organizations and entities.
If you’re interested in learning more about the benefits of our IVR payment systems, our mobile payment apps, payment APIs, and other services contact us for a free consultation. We could help drastically improve your overall payment experience leading to more on-time payments.
