I am thrilled to share that Chaser has been shortlisted at the CICM British Credit Awards for a second year running. Chaser is shortlisted for the Innovation & Technology Award, for the research, release, and results of the SMS payment reminders feature.

After being shortlisted for B2B Supplier of the Year and the Innovation & Technology Award in 2022, and winning the B2B Supplier of the Year Award in March 2022, it is an honour to again be recognised by the CICM.

The Chartered Institute of Credit Management (CICM) is the world's largest recognised professional body for the credit management community. The CICM British Credit Awards recognise stand-out achievements of the most deserving individuals, teams, and organisations in the international credit industry.

The Innovation & Technology Award recognises the impact of applying new information and communications technology across the credit management spectrum. It recognises solutions that help to achieve greater efficiency, enhanced quality, better customer service, lower error rates and/or effective implementation within agreed budgets and timetables.

We are proud to see Chaser shortlisted alongside other credit management industry leaders in these awards. Also shortlisted for the Innovation & Technology Award alongside Chaser is; Allied International Credit UK, Arvato Financial Solutions, Debt Register, DPD Group UK, and Softcat. See the 2023 CICM British Credit Awards shortlist here.

Innovation & Technology Award

Chaser’s accounts receivable software was developed in 2014 to help reduce late payments and their negative impacts on SMEs. Our mission is to help businesses worldwide get paid in an efficient and friendly way so they improve cash flow.

Today, Chaser is the highest-rated accounts receivable software and has supported businesses in chasing and recovering over $32bn in late payments.

In 2022, we added SMS payment reminders and direct debit payments to our end-to-end receivables automation software.

Chaser provides accounts receivable automation and credit control services to businesses globally, helping them to reduce late payments and get invoices paid in the most efficient and friendly way possible.

We champion a human approach to accounts receivables automation, so users can get paid what they’re owed without damaging their customer relationships.

This entry focuses on the SMS payment reminder feature released by Chaser in 2022, and the astonishing results it has helped users to achieve.

Chaser helps businesses get paid sooner with its award-winning all-in-one credit control automation platform, payment gateway, debt collections agency, and outsourced credit control services.

Since 2014 Chaser has focused on letting users follow up on payments with automated email reminders. Whilst email reminders alone had been effective in helping users to chase and recover $10billion in late payments and speed-up collections, both user and industry research highlighted the potential for a new channel to improve payment collection rates even further.

In an ideal world, invoices would get paid on time. However, in the average month, 48% of all invoices issued are paid late (Xero). With the average business owed $300,000 in late payments (QuickBooks), finance teams need to do what they can to ensure that their payment reminders get noticed and customers can pay their invoices easily.

On average, people receive double the number of emails per day than they do SMS messages. Due to the sheer volume of emails customers receive daily, payment reminders via email can sometimes get overlooked. In fact, the average open rate for emails is just 25%.

SMS messages on the other hand have an open rate of 98% (Tyntec), meaning payment reminders sent via SMS are far more likely to get noticed and to result in invoices getting paid.

During user focus groups, a theme emerged that our users’ slowest payers often fell within industries such as the manufacturing and construction trades.

Reaching payment contacts in these industries via email was often not practical, as many work on-site with limited time at their computer and limited access to their email inbox.

In response to industry research and user issues faced, Chaser released the SMS payment reminder so users can reach out to customers about payments in the most effective way possible and get invoices paid faster.

With the launch of SMS payment reminders, Chaser users can now credit check, monitor debtors, chase late invoices via email and SMS, let customers pay them instantly from their phone, recover debt and reconcile accounts, all in the same unique platform.

Fully automated

• Users benefit from both saved time and faster payments at the touch of a button, as SMS payment reminders are completely automated
• With Chaser’s advanced custom scheduling technology, now available across two channels (email and SMS) users can automatically send SMS reminders alongside email payment reminders, on the intervals, times and days that they choose

Seamless payments for customers

• Customers can pay invoices instantly, directly from their phone. Reducing payment friction and helping Chaser users get paid faster.
• SMS payment reminders can link recipients to their Payment Portal via a mini-URL. This portal gives customers varied options (direct debit, transfer, card payment, pay-all, request payment plan, dispute) and means customers can make payment via their chosen method whilst on the go, straight from their phone.

Always personalised

• Every SMS payment reminder looks like it has come directly from the sender, so customers are more likely to take notice and pay.
• At Chaser we champion personalisation, and let users automate their accounts receivables without losing the human touch. Just like Chaser’s email reminders, SMS messages can be customised to help users get paid faster whilst maintaining great customer relationships.
• SMS reminders use automatic personalisation fields (like business name, due date, invoice amount), and fully editable SMS templates that reflect the business’ usual language and style of communication with customers.

SMS payment reminders have been released to users in UK, US, and Australian businesses since February 2022. The feature has already delivered superior results for users in terms of payment collection rates.

Since the launch of SMS payment reminders in February 2022, Chaser users have chased and recovered an additional $22billion in late payments. The new feature has helped users to cut through the noise and reach their customers on the go. This feature also improves the payment experience for Chaser users' customers, letting them pay at the time and place that best suits them.

This new feature is improving payment rates from industries that have previously had hard-to-reach payment contacts, and caused late payments and cash flow issues for many of Chaser’s customers.

In the run-up to a potential global recession, Chaser is continuing to seek ways to help SMEs worldwide get paid on time in the most efficient and friendly way possible.