With over 30% of its ratepayers living or working elsewhere, Port Stephens Council on the northern NSW coast was quick to adopt electronic payment forms.
And customers were quick to respond, according to Manager Corporate Services Mark Edser. “With many properties owned as investments and a lot of residents some distance from Council, it was necessary to introduce a way for people to pay their rates remotely,” he said. “We introduced a telephone payment system some time ago which had an exponential uptake. We had to pull 10 people from other jobs and install 10 more lines to cope with the volume.”
The system had limitations, namely only being available during business hours. This prompted a revamp of the system and the engagement of SecurePay, a company specialising in safe electronic payment solutions. Now Port Stephens ratepayers have multiple options for paying rates and Council requires fewer staff to handle bill payments and administration.
A 24 hour, seven days a week robotic service can accept payment, provide a receipt number and automatically update data. This frees up staff time and lines for other customer service functions. In addition to the phone service, Council is also encouraging direct debit payments, Bpay and Internet payment services.
Mark Edser said people are wary about the security aspects of electronic payments but are probably far safer than when paying by cards in restaurants or for telephone bookings. He pointed out that the Internet payment service has a 128 byte encryption, considered to be almost unbreakable.
In addition such services negate the need to carry large sums of cash and are highly efficient for both Council and the customer. “For our part it is extremely efficient with data updated daily and the only person to transmit data is the customer,” he said. “The day is here when people want to pay by card and to pay when they want to.”
For further information contact Mark Edser, telephone (02) 4980 0158
