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We know that Direct Debit is not suitable for everyone, but for those who want to set them up, the process is just too complicated.
We looked at 50 council websites to analyse user experience during the Direct Debit signup process and found that many improvements could be made to significantly improve the volume of customers who register for Direct Debit.
Putting this right before billing next year would help you to increase your collection rate for 2023/4.
Why will increasing Direct Debit uptake help you?
- Citizens on Direct Debit are less likely to miss payments and fall into problem debt
- DDs can help customers budget more effectively and prioritise the bills they need to pay
Why do customers fail to set up Direct Debit?
We discovered that the process is too complicated, and users are not completing the set up process because:
- There are too many clicks - in some cases, it took up to 15 clicks to enrol!
- Organisations are asking for too much citizen data - surely local authorities just need your sort code and account number, don't they? Apparently not. Most organisations asked for 10 separate data fields to be submitted by the user!
- It includes difficult questions - over 90% ask for hard to know information, such as council tax account number
- It is overly wordy – there were on average over 1000 words throughout the process, most of which was legal speak
How can Arum help?
We can help in the following areas:
- Optimise your Direct Debit set up process – by helping you design and implement a process that increases the percentage of customers who complete the signup
- Increase the number of customers on Direct Debit – by helping you to design and implement a campaign before or during your 2023 annual billing process to get more customers onto Direct Debit
- Assess your current digital services and design new journeys offering higher levels of customer engagement and better outcomes
- Design, build and implement prototypes through specific microservices, simplified services or Conversational AI/Chatbot journeys for collections, and analyse their performance
- Help you understand the digital landscape to identify the most appropriate solutions and vendors to help you improve collections at reduced cost
Email us find out more about our research