End user self service with Billnow

Union Street has broken new ground for end user self service with Billnow, an optional new feature for its aBILLity billing platform that provides a self-service management portal for use by resellers’ partners and customers. The Billnow portal caters to increasing customer demand for self-service options, whilst simultaneously reducing the cost of service for resellers.

By drawing data directly from the aBILLity platform, the Billnow portal allows resellers’ customers to view up to the minute changes in their service usage, conduct their own reporting, and even make changes to their services. In addition, Billnow enables customers to perform SIM swaps, check associated networks and SIM numbers themselves, and set bars for certain services.

End user self service with Billnow greatly enhances the customer experience by enabling end-users to monitor and manage services as required. Resellers will also enjoy the dual benefit of reduced inbound calls and enquiries, lowering the cost of service by empowering end-users to help themselves.

The Billnow portal features a user-friendly, modern design, optimised for ease of use by Union Street’s user experience architects. The portal’s aesthetics can be customised and white-labelled with a reseller’s own logos and colour scheme, making it totally consistent with the reseller’s branding. Prominently placed advertising panels also provide resellers with options to promote additional products, services, and special offers.

Billnow was developed by Union Street following extensive consultations with its user community. These revealed an increasing trust and preference amongst end-users for online channels of self-service, driven by convenience and cost effectiveness. Also apparent was a corresponding pressure on resellers to meet customers’ expectations for digital service channels and keep pace with competitors’ service offerings. Union Street recently published a whitepaper highlighting some of the customer service trends which have driven the development of Billnow.

Speaking on the release of Billnow, Managing Director, Vincent Disneur said, “Over the last two years we have seen a rapid change and evolution in the way we work. Consumerisation of B2B relationships is one such trend, with business users coming to expect the same levels of service they get in their personal lives, with their work interactions. Billnow has been designed with this in mind, giving users a broad range of options to self-manage and control the services they buy from the channel. Not only will Billnow help resellers to win new business by enhancing the customer experience, but it’s also a driving force in keeping their customers loyal and locking out competition.”