In our two previous articles we have dealt with Electronic Commerce of Retail and Wholesale Products. In this article we are going to deal with Electronic Commerce applied to Service Companies highlighting the differences that exist between the commercialization of products (tangible) and services (intangible).
A service company is one that carries out an activity for the benefit of its client and therefore charges a certain price. There are multiple ways to collect depending on the type of service provided, which allows a classification of services.
The Electronic Commerce of Single Payment Services is one in which a punctual service is provided for a specific specific payment (eg transport of a package).
The Electronic Commerce of Financed Payment Services is one in which an initial payment is established with a determined number of additional installments until the total payment of the service is fulfilled (eg payment of financed insurance policies). The periodicity of the fees as well as the amount of fees and their amounts will depend on the provider's marketing policies.
Finally, there is the Electronic Commerce of Recurring Payment Services, in which a service is provided recurrently based on the corresponding periodic payment. In this case, the collection periods can vary (weekly, monthly, quarterly, semi-annually or annually) and the payments to be made can be fixed or variable depending on the type of service (whether it depends on consumption levels or not). There are many examples of recurring payment services and they are usually known as subscription or rental services.
Dentro del Comercio Electrónico de Servicios de Suscripción existen los Servicios de Pago Fijo donde podemos conseguir Servicios de Monitoreo de Alarmas con pago Mensual, Servicios de Almacenamiento de Células Madre con pago Anual, Servicios de Hospedaje de Aplicaciones Web (Emails, Archivos, etc.) en Servidores de pagos Mensuales o Anuales, Pago de Cuotas Mensuales de los Colegios Educativos, Membrecías de Suscripción a Clubes Mensuales, Suscripciones a Revistas Semestrales o Anuales, Suscripción a Televisión por Cable, entre otros.
In the case of Electronic Commerce of Variable Payment Subscription Services, telephone services, electricity supply, payment of condominiums, hotel accommodation, among others, can be cited as examples, where all are characterized because payment depends on individual consumption or within the group of beneficiaries.
The Electronic Commerce Services portals must allow contracting of services according to the business model established by the provider company. This implies that they vary according to the processes involved in contracting. In general, they require the provision of multiple data that allows the creation of affiliation or subscription contracts for the services. In turn, they must allow the shopping cart functionality to add one or multiple services to the contract simultaneously.
Once you are a customer of a service company, it is essential to have access to an Online Customer Panel that allows you to manage multiple aspects related to the commercial and administrative relationship with the provider.
An Electronic Commerce for Financed or Recurring Payment Services must provide its clients with private access to an area where they can accurately know the status of the relationship, beginning with the possibility of knowing which payments for services are due and for what periods They correspond, also allowing you to make your payments by deposits or bank transfers or by using credit cards.
For this it is very useful to have an Online Account Statement for each type of service contracted and / or globally, as well as a report of the transactions carried out. The Account Statements must allow (in addition to their on-screen display) the sending of the same by email and the possibility of generating them in the electronic PDF format.
The services must also allow viewing the pro-forma receipts or invoices on screen as well as their issuance via Email or in PDF format, indicating their status (Pending, In Process, Paid, Due, Suspended, Deleted).
In order to reduce delinquencies, an Electronic Commerce of Financed or Recurring Payment Services must have an automatic system of payment reminders to customers, which issues periodic messages through mobile devices (eg SMS text messages) or via email. These reminders can be classified and structured according to the expiration date of the services. Messages before expiration must indicate when the expiration date is, messages on the expiration date must indicate how long it will be possible to pay without affecting the supply of the service, messages after expiration must indicate when the service will be suspended and finally its removal date.
The Customer Panel for Electronic Commerce for Financed or Recurring Payment Services must also allow issuing circulars to customers to announce important events such as offers, new products or services, closure of activities for holidays, or any important announcement, between others.
It is also important that the client can request the elimination of the service at any time according to the contract, as well as the possibility that he may request an expansion or decrease in the level of the service according to the available portfolio.
The interconnection of Electronic Commerce for Financed or Recurring Payment Services with the Company's Administrative System is essential, since it constitutes a means of updating data for both customers and internal company areas. This data can be synchronized in batches at dawn hours (prices, list of services, clients, etc.) or in real time when required by the client (payments, punctual transactions, account statements, etc.).
In general, having an Electronic Commerce Services portal for your company or institution is essential to increase the satisfaction of your users or clients, differentiate yourself from the competition, reduce late payments, facilitate commercial and administrative processes, and decrease operating costs for managing customer relationships.
If you are a manager, director or entrepreneur of a service organization and do not have an Electronic Commerce Services portal, or have a website with many limitations in this regard, we recommend contacting now an expert provider who can provide the best online business technology platform and have significant experience in the area.
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