Guest commentary: Learning about frictionless payment experiences from the pros

When you think about creating a fantastic customer experience for your borrowers, bill payment may not immediately come to mind.

However, consider this: Long after your customers drive off the lot with their new cars, they will continue to make their auto loan payments, month after month. That means it's important to make sure buyers have as positive a perception of the bill payment experience as they do with other parts of their customer experience.

Making payments as frictionless as possible is critical, especially when 74 percent of consumers say inflation has moderately or greatly impacted their ability to pay their bills, according to a recent survey.

Here are a few companies that have set the standard for an "easy button" payment experience and what they can teach us.

These two trailblazers invented modern ride-sharing by merging the convenience of a taxi ride with embedded order and payment. The consumer simply opens the app, shops for a ride, reviews the price and confirms purchase — all with a few taps.

This summer, Lyft took its payment experience a step further by adding a digital cash-pay option. This opens its services to the millions of consumers who do not have a bank or credit card or simply prefer to use cash. To add cash to their Lyft Cash balance, customers visit select retail locations, present a barcode or ID number from their Lyft app to the cashier and add their desired amount. The balance gets automatically deducted with each shared ride.

Lessons for billers: Auto lenders can create a convenient and seamless mobile payment experience similar to what's offered by Uber and Lyft by using "living" bills that reside in payers' digital wallet apps, such as Apple Pay and Google Pay. Your payments provider enables Apple Pay and Google Pay as payment options and generates a biller card or wallet card specific to each payer's bill. Once payers add the card to their digital wallet, they simply tap on the card to be taken directly to their payment screen with no login required.

Additionally, your payments provider may have a system to enable cash pay of recurring bill payments. Like the Lyft experience, the auto lender's payment platform generates unique payment barcodes that can be saved in payers' digital wallets and used to pay their bills with cash at participating retail locations.

Consumers say conveniences such as these make digital wallets a helpful option for bill payment. The consumer survey showed auto loans taking fourth place in priority behind housing, electric and water bills, so making bill payment as fast and frictionless as possible will help keep payers motivated and on track.

Companies such as Clover have taken point-of-sale systems to a new level by enabling customers to order and pay at their local restaurant simply by scanning a QR code. The server prints a unique QR code for each table, which guests scan to make their menu selections, review their check, and pay using any mobile payment method they choose — no login required.

Lessons for billers: Billers can create a similar scan-and-go experience for bill payers using QR codes and unique, personalized payment links.

For payers who choose to receive a paper bill, your payments platform provider can create QR codes personalized to each account. Payers simply scan the QR code with their smartphone and it takes them directly to their payment screen, no login required. In less than a minute, they can review their balance, enter their payment method and submit payment.

Electronic bill payers can get the same ease of use through personalized payment links sent through text or email payment reminders.

By streamlining the payment process for customers, technologies such as QR codes and personalized links encourage on-time, self-service payment. Payers don't need to write a check, track down passwords or call for assistance — it's as close to a scan-and-go payment experience as you can get.

According to findings from the same survey, 54 percent of consumers are worried about recessionary impacts on their ability to pay bills, including 13 percent fearing their car will be repossessed. Implementing easy-payment strategies such as QR codes and payment links with the help of your payments provider can alleviate payment hurdles so payers are more likely to stay current, even if times get tough. Payment innovators such as Uber, Lyft and Clover have already paved the way.