The tolling industry is booming, with more than 6,500 centerline miles in 34 U.S states. Toll authorities collect more than $100 billion in annual revenue globally from more than 1 billion drivers. However, authorities are losing billions of dollars each year due to uncollected tolls. Authorities can mitigate those toll collection losses by shoring up their customer experience (CX).

Revenue Leakage Takes Its Toll

Tolling revenue leakage-the difference between what a company collects and what it should collect-is huge. U.S. toll authorities are unable to collect at least $2.24 billion annually due to various breakdowns in the collection process. They're losing revenue due to:

  • Unreadable license plates
  • Bad or incorrect billing data (i.e., unavailable or incorrect addresses)
  • Unpaid invoices
  • Confusing billing statements and payment processes

The only way to prevent revenue leakage is to eliminate the need to collect in the first place. Unfortunately, toll-by-plate collection is a necessary evil. The good news, however, is toll authorities can improve the pay-by-plate experience by making it easier for the drivers to pay and convert to account holders. While revenue leakage problems might feel daunting to solve, there are tactical solutions and strategies that will improve your organization's collection rate.

3 Strategies to Improve Revenue Collection for Tolling Agencies

1. Improve the customer billing experience

To increase toll collection, you must make it more convenient for people to pay their bills.

You can enhance the billing experience by providing:

  • Clear billing statements that include a clear due date and describe the charges for each trip, including any penalties or fees. Avoid using the phrase "Due by."
  • Convenient payment methods (e.g., credit cards, Apple Pay, etc.) including leveraging digital channels (e.g., QR codes, SMS, etc.)
  • Self-service capabilities. Drivers should be able to pay online or by phone, anytime, anywhere. This reduces contact center call volumes, improving the experience for customers (by minimizing their time on hold) and agents alike.

Related Case Study:ADT saw 20% reduction in billing calls

2. Automate billing and collection processes

Innovative toll authorities and back-office providers use automation to improve revenue collection rates.

Billing and collection automation:

  • Reduces the time and cost spent on collecting revenue (by replacing inefficient manual processes)
  • Reduces call center volumes, which improves CX
  • Improves revenue collection by making it easier to transition customers from printed statements to a digital billing journey where they receive payment reminders and easier payment options

3. Leverage data analytics to improve billing processes and vehicle identification

Analyze your collections data (e.g., percentage of billed dollars that are collected) to identify areas for billing and collection process improvement.

Data analytics help you:

  • Identify inefficiencies in your billing process. Do you need to improve payment processing or customer service? Do customers drop off because they can't easily log in?
  • Improve customer service by tracking and analyzing call center metrics (e.g., number and length of calls, hold times, etc.), evaluate agent performance and identify areas for improvement and training. If daily call volume is too high, determine what is prompting the calls and take steps to solve those problems. For example, if customers frequently call with billing questions, consider redesigning your billing statement.

More accurate vehicle identification leads to greater revenue collection. By leveraging customer data profiles from other systems (e.g., DMV databases, mover databases, etc.) to track and identify unknown vehicles, you will increase your overall collection rate.

For example, if you have a database of vehicle registration numbers and VINs from another system, use this data to identify vehicles that are not in your database. This is especially important for fleets that have vehicles with custom license plates or fleet numbers-the kind of vehicle identification most often used by law enforcement agencies.

Related Resource:Drive an Exceptional Customer Experience in the Tolling Industry

Unsure where to start improving CX?

Our Communication Design and Delivery teams improve CX and revenue collection while decreasing costs for some of our biggest clients. One client reduced their call center volume by 20% by redesigning their bill.

Talk with one of our tolling experts who will help you figure out where to get started in improving your billing experience and toll collection rates.

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Disclaimer

CSG Systems International Inc. published this content on 16 May 2024 and is solely responsible for the information contained therein. Distributed by Public, unedited and unaltered, on 16 May 2024 19:20:01 UTC.