CASH AND CARRY

It all boils down to this: If you, as a service provider, could make it easier for customers to send you money, and it barely cost you a dime — and perhaps even makes you a few bucks — what would you do?

It was pretty much a no-brainer for Cincinnati Bell to give CheckFreePay the authorization to establish 80 walk-in bill payment sites for customers all over its territory to pay their communications bills in person.

It was pretty much a no-brainer for CheckFreePay as well since many sites were already set up for area residents to pay other utility bills.

“Consumers are increasingly looking for a wide range of ways to view and pay their bills, and there is no specific model that applies to everyone,” said Matt McKernan, senior vice president of the biller business unit at CheckFreePay “So we want to be everywhere people want to pay.”

That way, Cincinnati Bell doesn't have to be.

Walk-in payment centers are not new to Cincinnati Bell, and in fact, many independents have a high percentage of residential customers who prefer paying in person. The company has always had a walk-in center at its downtown location, and about 22,000 payments per month are accepted there. However, that location wasn't very convenient for its customers in Kentucky or parts of Indiana or even in Dayton, Ohio, where the company expanded its CLEC presence.

“So the way to combat that was to form this relationship with CheckFreePay and get more locations out there,” said Tim Plummer, director of finance for Cincinnati Bell's call center organization.

For many, it sounds like a potential headache, managing 80 agent relationships just to provide added convenience to the small percentage of walk-in customers in an increasingly electronic age. In fact, 22% to 25% of Cincinnati Bell customers are now paying online or over the phone. But whatever headache there might be doesn't belong to Cincinnati Bell. CheckFreePay gladly assumes that potential problem by managing the agent relationships.

The company got into the walk-in payment business when it acquired American Payment System in early 2004 for approximately $110 million. It now has about 10,000 agents nationwide.

With CheckFreePay's help, Cincinnati Bell now has four options for customers to pay their bills: over the phone through its interactive voice response system, by walking into one of its 80 locations, online through either its own Web portal or CheckFreePay's, or the old-fashioned way, by sending a check.

Except for the latter, it's all the same to Cincinnati Bell. Even the walk-in payments come in the form of an electronic transaction whether customers walk in with a check or with cash. Cincinnati Bell simply gets an hourly electronic report.

Sue Ash, director of transformation and process improvement for Cincinnati Bell, said the two companies have worked together for about 18 months. “They've become a very strategic partner for us, and we are happy with the relationship so far,” Ash said.

So far, the companies did business with CheckFreePay's online aggregation portal for consumers then began building an e-business site that will be turned up in June. The walk-in option was sort of a whim.

“But I don't see it going away. People like that face-to-face way of doing business, and they like getting that receipt right away,” Ash said.

Plummer concurs, even with the acceleration of online bill payment. “The [customer] segment that uses this will always use it. They are a different group from those who use electronic payments,” he said.