With the move to online education models over the last decade, and more notably, the rush to digital that came with COVID-19 over the last two years, education businesses have found themselves expanding their target markets and taking on the responsibilities and demands of a thriving digital business.

Customer expectations have also changed. Payment flexibility has become a priority for students as they juggle financial demands, and a stronger competitive landscape now entitles students to select a provider that caters to their individual needs.

However, equally present during this time, was the innovation of technology to help shoulder the manual burden of increased administrative tasks and to support businesses through this transformation.

Exchanging 'manual' for 'automated'

Business success in the education sector relies heavily on maintaining the flow of regular enrolments, ensuring smooth student onboarding and continuing to deliver value for your existing student base. This is why implementing a technology solution to support your business and automate your payment collection can do a world of good. This will free up your time and resources to focus on the more important, revenue-generating activities while leaving the receivables duties to an application designed to do this for you.

Implementing automatic payments can be advantageous across many areas of the business; from its ability to eliminate arduous manual invoicing right through to the auto-rebill functions to manage any failed payments.

Offering payment flexibility

Your prospective customers are always searching for businesses that can address their specific requirements and meet their demands, and they make buying decisions based on this. They have access to vast amounts of information online, which has allowed them to take charge of finding businesses that meet their needs better than others – and this includes the payment options on offer.

Offering payment plans or regular ongoing debits for continued learning will set you apart from other providers and encourage the uptake of new enrolments. Similarly, by offering a variety of payment methods, you can further improve accessibility for students.

For example, some customers prefer recurring card payments, and they may even have a preference for a specific type, such as American Express, MasterCard or Visa. They may be accumulating points or are simply requiring a credit purchase. Others may choose to forgo credit for a bank direct debit payment, and with the internet connecting international markets easily, you may even find that your new enrolments want to pay with international cards and currencies.

This has meant that education businesses have had to adapt to be far more accommodating to their customers’ needs, or risk being overtaken by competitors who better meet these demands.

Ezypay is an industry leading payment provider specialising in the collection of recurring payments for educational institutions. Our solution has been tailored to maximise your payment collection rates and make it easy for you to manage student payment plans, while also providing a highly secure and flexible payment experience.

Click on the button below to learn more about the benefits of Ezypay for your business and explore our integrated partners.