Consumers Say Mobile Bill Pay Not Up To Snuff

When it comes to paying bills via mobile, consumers expect more than they’re getting out of their current experience. That’s what new research from Fiserv — a global provider of financial services technology solutions — recently concluded.

The research shows that despite the growing number of mobile bill pay options and users during the past year, there is still a gap in the mobile bill pay experience. The research shows that nearly one in five visits to a biller’s website come from a mobile device (55 percent increase). While a majority of those visit the sites to pay a bill online, the research shows that only 16 percent of billers have implemented a mobile bill pay option, which is not consistent with what consumers appear to want out of their payment experience.

“Consumers want a consistent, secure experience across all channels. And as consumer use of the mobile channel increases, so does the demand for an enhanced mobile billing and payment experience,” said Eric Leiserson, a senior research analyst for Biller Solutions at Fiserv. “Large and small billers alike can provide a superior experience with capabilities such as bill pay alerts and reminders, and mobile image capture, which allows users to capture bill payment information with their smartphone camera. By developing and implementing a MBPP strategy, billers can improve the consumer’s experience and satisfaction, as well as realize cost efficiencies with paperless adoption.”

The research indicates that having a mobile bill payment option is more likely to increase customer satisfaction as there is less friction involved in the payment process. When looking into what’s holding companies back from implementing mobile strategies, the data shows that billers still fail to properly execute mobile bill pay and options, largely because of a lack of IT resources, conflicting business priorities and security concerns.

“The mobile channel is a rapidly growing customer communications platform desired among our customers, and bill payment is a top activity,” said Kathleen Kelley, manager of customer interface and channel management at American Electric Power. “Utilizing responsive design and allowing customers to interact with us the way they want creates high business value and is critical to satisfaction and overall success.”