Top 12 Benefits of Telecom Billing Software

A telecom company has two different ways of charging its customers. It either manually calculates costs or uses billing software to automate the process. 

Businesses prefer billing software to manual billing for several reasons: automated billing, increased brand trust, high transparency, and accuracy. In this blog post, we will discuss what telecom billing software is and its benefits.

What Is Telecom Billing Software?

A telecom billing software is an application that a telecom service provider uses to calculate fees owed by customers. Sometimes, it charges customers based on the services used in real-time and automatically deducts the charge from a prepaid billing account. Other times, it automatically generates an invoice after a set time interval for a postpaid customer. 

Every telecom billing software incorporates billing, rating, tariffs, discounts, prorating, and payment processing. It uses the three main ways of charging customers – prepaid, postpaid, and convergent.

Benefits of Telecom Billing Software

A telecom billing app allows your company to:

Increase Billing Accuracy

Telecom billing software uses pre-written and tested algorithms to determine how many services a customer has used and how much to charge. It may deduct the cost from the customer’s prepaid account. Accurately charging users increase their trust in your company because of the transparency and accuracy in billing.

Easily Compile Detailed Invoices and Expense Reports

A telecom billing software automates producing detailed reports and invoices for your users. 

Customers like to see what they are being charged for in detail. A billing software lists, in a tabular form, the services used, days they were used, duration, and total tariff. It also incorporates any discounts or prorated refunds. 

Expense reports take the average human hours to compile for each customer, not to mention when you have thousands of subscribers. For billing software, it takes seconds and mere minutes for thousands of users.

Prevent Corrupt and Duplicate Data Entry

A human manually entering and compiling data is prone to errors like typographical mistakes or data omission. They may even process an entry multiple times. 

A telecom billing software prevents you from making human errors due to billing and rating. It also helps you filter out duplicate users by comparing credentials like social security numbers.

Fairly Bill and Manage a Large Number of Users

For big telecom companies with tens of thousands of subscribers, using telecom billing software is essential. Telecom businesses need to accurately and fairly charge all of their customers. Their users should be able to automatically generate account statements or apply a discount. Billing systems make it all easy.

Stand Out From Competitors

Your company is at an advantage over your competitors that do not use telecom billing systems. This is because your company will be regarded as more trustworthy than your competitors. Because you charge customers in a transparent manner they become repeat long-time customers.

Timely Manage User Subscriptions

If you run a subscription model telecom business, you need a telecom billing solution. Some billing processes will have to be automated to avoid errors and to speed up processing. 

For instance, imagine a customer who switches from a monthly payment to an annual payment method. You must immediately remove them from the monthly billed customers. Think also about upgrades, downgrades, and cancellations. Handling these sloppily is enough to destroy your brand.

Integrate With CRM and ERP Software

Telecom billing software integrates with Customer Relationship Management (CRM) and Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) tools to facilitate smooth customer experiences and expand self-service options. These self-service options include checking the account balance or topping it up.

Avoid Delayed Cash Flow

Telecom billing software helps you to reduce late payments from customers. If you have a human team working on generating invoices for clients, you are going to be dealing with a lot of late payments and even cancellations.

A telecom billing software sends out invoices and payment reminders at a regular interval. It allows customers to expect and plan for billing so that they are ready to pay immediately or soon after they receive an invoice.

Minimize Billing Errors And Customer Attrition

Too many errors and inconsistencies in billing lead to a depletion of brand trust. Also, customers will be annoyed at you and will cancel their subscriptions more often. Plus, your brand will suffer a barrage of bad online reviews.

Effectively Manage Invoice Exceptions And Customer Disputes

Telecom companies dealing with lots of customers will have many customer complaints. If you have telecom billing software that is transparent about how it collates data and bills customers, it will be easier to settle disputes.

Secure Customer Data

Telecom billing applications protect the data of customers. User data will not go through the hands of several human operators before it gets to the customer because processing happens between the billing software and the computer. So, a telecom billing app ensures billing data security.

Customize Billing according to the Tax and Business Requirements

Telecom billing software personalizes billing by generating invoices per user. The software considers discounts, the customer’s taxes, and the company’s compliance requirements.

Integrate Telecom Billing Software in Your Business Today

Telgoo5 has helped dozens of businesses integrate telecom billing software into their companies. Contact us today for a free consultation and free demo.

Setting Up Convergent Billing? Implement These Best Practices With Telgoo5

When customers are using your services, they want to spend more time on their calls, texts, and data exchange than dealing with billing issues. We at Telgoo5 know that in today’s competitive environment, not getting this convenience can cause them to switch to another provider right away. To make matters worse, this all happens before you even have time to turn things around for the better.

That’s why almost all telecom companies use convergent charging for improved customer experience.

Simply put, convergent billing helps your customers deal with different charges on their accounts in a single invoice. They no longer have to pay individual payments for multiple services or devices. Everything is now present in a single bill. This presentation makes their lives that much easier in a day and age where customization is the most critical factor in utilizing telecom services.

If you are integrating convergent billing through your mobile virtual network enabler (MVNE), it is essential to ensure they are set up the right way. Being mindful of the following best practices can help you determine if you are fulfilling the crucial requirements of this segment.

Best Practices for Convergent Billing

As mentioned above, ease of use should be your guiding force throughout the setup process for convergent billing. Remember to keep this simple rule of thumb in mind. Set up your convergent charging in a way that ensures optimal customer retention.

But apart from ease of use, the following tips by Telgoo5 are also crucial in setting up this billing mechanism. This strategy allows your customers to make the most out of the simplicity you are offering to them.

Make It Simple to Understand

Since you are representing all of your charges in a single invoice, it is paramount for that bill to be as transparent as possible.

Separate and segment your invoice into different sections, such as data and voice charges. If there are any other charges that you think need a separate section, make sure to list them accordingly as well. Setting up your backend convergent billing interface with this goal in mind is the key to achieving more straightforward billing delivery.

This distinction makes the invoice easier to read, and your customers appreciate this transparency as well. This process also reduces your call and inquiry volume that is related to resolving basic billing questions.

Make It Easy to Set Up

Convergent charging should be as easy to set up as it is simpler to understand. Ensure that your customer relationship management (CRM) application makes it easy to assign different charges to your customer profile. This refinement helps your representatives in delivering on-call changes without getting into unnecessary complexities.

This also holds for your customers’ end as well. Don’t use convoluted mechanisms. Don’t go for complex interactive voice recordings (IVRs). Don’t assign complicated service codes to use. Make everything as straightforward as possible.

This process helps your customers change their services promptly. With the assurance of a consolidated bill in mind, this easy setup translates to better customer experience.

Have a Clear Difference in Service Charges

While setting up convergent billing, you must offer a variation in charges through your MVNE.

Make sure to take a look at what your competitors are offering and develop your subscription packages to be better in delivery. With this, also ensure that your packages are different from each other to offer a diverse range of experiences.

Having little to no difference in subscription costs kills the whole concept of convergent charging. If you have a clear difference in subscription packages, it translates to a charging system telecom consumers find much easier to use. This notion also goes a long way in customer retention.

Contact Telgoo5, an Experienced MVNE, Today

To make sure that you are setting up complex convergent billing in an easy to use way, having an experienced MVNE is of paramount importance.

The Telgoo5 team can assist, with extensive experience in setting up convergent charging systems, we can help you achieve your goals with ease. Our targeted setup and delivery mechanisms setup convergent billing in a way that’s easy to use for your customers and even simpler to deploy for your company.

At the same time, we deliver these services at competitive rates, which is due to the modern infrastructure that we have built for our operations.

If you are looking for an MVNE to set up convergent billing or improve your existing online charging systems, don’t hesitate to call Telgoo5 today. The Telgoo5 team will be glad to discuss your needs and help you deploy better services for your customers in no time.