In school we were taught what are the liberal professionsoccupations in which a qualified professional provides a technical service of some kind (usually based on his or her subject matter expertise) directly to a customer; things have changed and today it would be something like a freelancer, but with more cache, and often with a professional association behind it.
Doctors, lawyers or architects are the clearest examples of these professionals, without forgetting notaries, journalists, psychologists, pharmacists, engineers, teachers, writers, designers, accountants or advisors and consultants of all types and conditions. As we say, things have changed; today the secure telephone payment by phone is secure telephone payment by telephone is a resource to be taken into account. We explain.
How does a professional charge for his services?
A tricky question to which we would not like to answer “late, wrong and never”, although unfortunately sometimes it would be the most accurate answer… The fact is that the usual thing is to issue an invoice, send it to the customer and a more or less prolonged and more or less uncertain wait until the payment is received by means of a deposit in a bank account.
But at this point, services are no longer provided as they used to be. It is not uncommon for a lawyer’s services, a coach’ s session or a veterinarian’s consultation to be conducted by telephone on a regular basis; indeed, for some professionals it is the usual way their business or livelihood operates.
And what is the method these professionals tend to use right now to charge for their services? Mainly three:
- Premium rate numbers. The famous 807 and company, always suspicious for the customer. In these cases, the professional works on a “piecework basis” (so many minutes of service, so many euros).
- Subscription programs. Normally the client must subscribe online to a periodic payment service for which he/she contracts certain services, measured in number of monthly consultations for example.
Payment gateway systems. They are perfectly legal and secure digital mechanisms but quite complex (see the case of the General Council of State Lawyers) and often inaccessible to professionals.
The PAYby CALL solution
There are more efficient methods than special pricing (with the customer more attentive to the clock than anything else), than subscription programs (unattractive to occasional customers), than payment gateways (always complex, with numerous requirements and steps). The IVR (interactive voice response) charging system, for example.
In this system, the customer is served in a conventional manner except at the time of payment, when the agent (in this case the professional) establishes the amount and redirects the call to an automated system. This system requests card data from the customer and forwards it to the bank for payment management. No human intervention, no data storage. This guarantees a maximum level of security of these data which is worth the PCI-DSS level 1 certification.
Fully settled in other business models such as e-commerce, e-business, e-commerce call centers telemarketing or even public entities that collect credit card payments over the phone (as in the case of the case of the Barcelona City Council for the payment of taxes and fines), secure telephone payment with a credit card has powerful reasons such as lower management costs, greater fluidity in omnichannel communication (if there is also a website or physical office) and, above all, total security for both parties.
Broaden your business horizons and secure your collections
You professionals are one of the economic engines of the world, and to remain competitive you have to know how to evolve and adapt to the times… But you have to be on the safe side!
