bezahl.de expands to service business: fully digital payment management – without cash

Since 2018, NX Technologies has been offering the first payment management platform developed for automotive retailers with its main product bezahl.de. The central goal is to transform payment processes into the digital world — both in the back office of the car dealership and in claims against the customer. Right from the start, the Cologne-based start-up brought leading car retail groups from Germany on board, which support payment experts with insights into today's payment processes in the car trade. “It is important to us that we always design and develop new products together with the market,” says Lasse Diener, founder of NX Technologies, outlining the company's orientation. Since the start in summer 2018, over 20 of the top 100 car trade groups in Germany have now signed up for the use of bezahl.de decided to be efficient and future-oriented when it comes to payment.

Initially, bezahl.de was used to digitize payment processes in sales. When it became clear that the application automated many tasks in managing payments, customers wanted to bezahl.de can also be used in service. “Since retailers often process ten times as many payments in the service, it was logical that we would also expand our platform to this area at an early stage,” says Lasse Diener. The central goal of the service is to gradually replace analog cash registers, including queues and cash as well as open items, with a fully automated and digital process.

One thing is clear: As a result of the pandemic, contactless payment options are in focus more than ever. “Many car dealers came to us, particularly as a result of stronger demand for pick-up and delivery services and efforts to protect employees and customers,” says Diener. In order to meet market needs in the service sector as well, bezahl.de Once again, so-called “development partnerships” were concluded with car trade groups, which provided support with insights and feedback. These companies included major VW partners such as Moll, Autoschmitt and Mense as well as the BMW dealer Brandenburg. The result is a continuous digital process from payment claim to processing and allocation.

‍But how does bezahl.de work for the service?

Digital payment claim

The process starts with the service invoice being invoiced by simultaneously sending a digital payment invitation with the PDF invoice attached to the customer. In many cases, this step alone is intended to save the need to print out or send the invoice by post. In addition, outstanding items should be settled earlier than before. “Even billing customers who have become inevitable, as the invoice was not written early, for example, are served significantly better and faster by the digital payment invitation than by post. When I receive a payment request by email, including the choice between different payment methods, I settle it faster than opening a letter and typing out bank details,” says Elena Trapp, who is responsible for expanding bezahl.de to the service, summarizing the simplified process step.

Contactless payment

Without registration, customers can now pay the service bill via their own smartphone before or upon collection. Due to the lower sums in the service area, bezahl.de has now also integrated everyday payment methods such as PayPal and credit card. This allows online-savvy customers to pay their service bill just like in an online shop, which is also very well received by pick-up and delivery services. In addition, bezahl.de would also like to offer so-called “tablet smart cash registers” in the short term. Traditional customers should be able to pay by EC or credit card by entering the invoice number on a tablet without having to queue at a cash register. In this way, several customers can be served contactlessly and cashlessly.

Easy key handover

For key issuance, bezahl.de presents every invoice with live payment status, so that both customers and employees in the car dealership are always informed about the current payment status. In the future, this should also enable 24/7 key handover with key boxes.

Automated open item lists

In principle, bezahl.de wants to significantly minimize the number of open items. Since the company offers transparency of all invoices with live payment status at all times, the management of outstanding items is simplified. Where lists are prepared manually today, pay.de makes it possible to see at a glance which claim is overdue. In addition, bezahl.de has developed an intelligent receivables management system in which customers receive a payment reminder by e-mail in a cycle to be defined by the car dealer, for example every three days. Only when a customer has not paid after several reminders can the retailer initiate further steps instead of making time-consuming phone calls or reminders by post right from the start.

With its smart service solution, bezahl.de therefore not only wants to provide support during the corona pandemic, but also want to change the payment process in the automotive trade in the long term. If you are interested in video product training from bezahl.de , the bezahl.de team is always available for you. This is how digitization can help!