Behind the Surge in Phone Billing Growth: An Interview with the ILD Payments Experts

ILD’s Payments Division has shown impressive growth year over year. To what do you attribute this?

Dennis Stoutenburgh: ILD’s Payment Processing Division has grown more than fivefold over the past four years by tailoring our systems to the needs of our customers, providing accurate reporting and settling faster than anyone else in the industry. ILD’s systems enable our customers to get their money fast and reconcile to the penny. Along with financial stability, innovation is an important factor in the payment-processing world. ILD-pioneered advanced payment and settlement services have accelerated the adoption of bill-to-phone for more than traditional communications services. Merchants selling premium content, such as information and entertainment services, are using ILD’s credit card alternatives for revenue lift, also contributing to ILD’s growth.

ILD prides itself on customer care. What do you do for customers that is different?

Kathy McQuade: Our commitment to customer care is initiated early and lasts through the customer lifecycle. Our customers were included in the design and development of our systems. We base all upgrades and enhancements on direct input from our customers, with a focus on dynamically adjusting our systems to promote ease of use and operational improvement. Also, ILD’s reports are accurate and settlements are timely. We handle our customers’ money and customers with the same consideration as our own. So when it comes

to handling primary inquiry from our onshore call center facility, developing custom reports or rapidly deploying payment solutions, we always give customers what they want.

Information and Entertainment Transaction Billing (“IETB”) seems to be a hot topic of discussion. What is it? Why is it important?

Kathy McQuade: IETB is a “no credit card required” payment solution developed specifically for digital merchants and content providers to process electronic transactions to a telephone bill for most online subscription-based services, including digital entertainment, online gaming, music and movie downloads. With the rapid growth in the online marketplace, providing digital content subscribers with an alternative to online credit card payment is optimizing the digital landscape and enabling users to be billed later, simply and safely via their phone bill.

How do you see the Local Exchange Carrier (“LEC”) billing market changing in the next five years?

Dennis Stoutenburgh: As mobile device manufacturers push the envelope on design and user interface, mobile billing will continue to be an area of growth. The social strength of the Internet is greater than ever, and I expect an accelerated demand for applications, downloads and online subscriptions purchased through the phone bill. We also expect to see a lower concentration of long distance and continued penetration into mobile billing.

You are known as a LEC billing industry authority around ILD. What important factors should a company consider when evaluating a LEC billing partner?

Kathy McQuade: A LEC billing partnership is for the long-term, so trust is important. I always tell a company that is either LEC billing for the first time or transitioning from another clearinghouse to ask itself the following questions before they move forward with any one provider:

- Would they make a good partner?

- Are they financially stable?

- What kinds of tools do they provide to help me efficiently manage my business?

- Are they subject matter experts in the area of phone billing?

At ILD, our relationships with LECs are older than our company. Our team has been working with the phone companies since the divestiture of AT&T and maintains relationships at the highest carrier levels, which allows for faster approvals, easier implementations and superior support. Other considerations include cost-effectiveness, handling of services in-house, and growth potential, to name a few.

We hear a lot about the importance of validating prior to billing. What is “validation” and why is it important?

Kathy McQuade: Validation is a critical cost-savings tool that is usually neglected in the payment processing cycle. Often after a consumer signs up for a merchant’s service, a change will occur, such as moving, disconnecting or changing numbers or providers. These records are submitted to a clearinghouse – like ILD – containing inaccurate information, which costs the merchant through processing fees and rejection fees. By validating through ILD’s service first, merchants can reduce bad debt and reduce marketing dollars spent on unbillables, and bill their customers more accurately. The pennies it costs to validate is more than offset by the expense associated with the alternative.

 

Bill Online Entertainment to the Phone Bill!

Approved services include:

Online Memberships, Ring Tone Downloads, Subscription Gaming, Dating Subscriptions, Software Downloads, Music Downloads, Online Studies

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