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GDPR. It was nowhere and then suddenly it was everywhere. The buzzword at the front of business professional’s tongues for the past year. As such, industries have been forced to become stricter on how they store and use personal data. But what impact will this have on companies collecting Direct Debits and bureaus hired to manage this cash flow?

 

What is GDPR?

The introduction of GDPR, or the General Data Protection Regulation, is the largest change to data protection in the last 20 years. GDPR will replace the current Data Protection Act (DPA) in May. Whilst the rules under the new legislation don’t stray too far from those under the DPA, the tightening of these will have effect a visible change to organisations, and the onus is on the controllers and processors of data to enforce these.

• Controller: The ICO describes a controller as the person, or organisation, responsible for determining ‘the purposes and means of processing personal data.’ This might be a leisure organisation handling Direct Debit membership collections, or a magazine collecting subscriptions via Direct Debit
• Processor: This is the body responsible for processing personal data on behalf of an organisation. We, at DFC, fall under this remit, alongside other Direct Debit bureaus who manage Direct Debit cashflow for third-parties.

 

What needs to be considered?

The GDPR’s definition of ‘personal data’ is much broader than under the DPA. It is any information relating to an identifiable person, be this a name, an ID number as well as social, genetic, and importantly in the case of Direct Debit, economic identifiers.

It has never not been important to pass data safely and securely. That said, those in breach of non-compliance can face fines of up to €20 million or 4% of annual turnover (whichever is highest). It’s in every organisation’s interest to take data protection more seriously, if only for their own sake.

Finally, people will no longer have to jump through hoops to access their own stored data. They can request corrections to inaccurate data and have the ‘right to be forgotten’ – i.e. controllers and processors must remove all information held on them.

 

Direct Debit is the securest money transfer service available, but that shouldn’t stop you taking steps to ensure you meet the expected regulatory standards for yourself and your customers.

If you have any questions regarding how the new laws may affect your Direct Debit provisions, why not get in touch? We may be able to answer any questions you have. Alternatively, for more information on DFC, or to find out what we can do to help improve your cash flow, visit us at www.debitfinance.co.uk.

Ever looked at Direct Debit documentation and been confused by all the financial jargon in it? You’re not alone. Below, we break down some of this puzzling terminology in more detail:

 

Bacs

Before rebranding to Bacs Payments Ltd, Bacs stood for ‘Bankers Automated Clearing Service.’ Despite the name change, the organisation’s purpose has remained the same. They are the body responsible for the clearing and settlement of Direct Debit and Direct Credit. Bacs oversee all Direct Debit transactions and each instruction will follow through a payment system devised by Bacs.

 

ADDACS – Automated Direct Debit Amendments and Cancellation Service

This is an automated service enabling banks or building societies to notify collecting organisations of any amendments of cancellations to a customer’s Direct Debit. The service user will receive a report, generated either automatically or manually, outlining any changes to a Direct Debit instruction.

 

AUDDIS – Automated Direct Debit Instruction Service

AUDDIS automates the transfer of money between the service user and their bank or building society. It is the service enabling Direct Debit instructions to be lodged electronically, rather than on paper. Not only is the Direct Debit process dramatically sped up through AUDDIS, the number of errors caused by manual handling is also reduced.

 

ARUDD – Automated Return of Unpaid Direct Debits

An ARUDD message will be sent from the bank or building society to the service user in the event of a failed payment. Like an ADDACS message, the collecting organisation will manually or automatically receive a report with a reason code detailing why the failure happened.

 

DDICA – Direct Debit Indemnity Claims Advice

DDICA notifications take place when a customer raises an indemnity claim against you. This will be for one of three reasons: the customer denies all knowledge of setting up a mandate, a payment has been collected after a mandate has been cancelled, there are problems with a specific payment collection.

 

Get in touch with Debit Finance for any further questions you may have surrounding the Direct Debit process. Alternatively, leave them to collect your Direct Debits whilst you concentrate on running – and growing – your business.

 

It’s important to keep a check on your Direct Debits for several reasons, but the dormancy rule is arguably one of the most significant of these. This is the rule that stipulates that a Direct Debit instruction will be removed from a banker’s system after 13 months (typically) of inactivity.

 

What is the dormancy rule?

The dormancy rule was put in place by Bacs, the body responsible for regulating Direct Debit.  It acts as a safeguard in the instance that Direct Debits should be left on a customer’s account indefinitely. This way, companies can’t reach their hand back into a consumer’s account at a later point without the permission of the account holder.

 

What to do in the event of an inactive Direct Debit

The first step in this process is ensuring you stay conscious of your Direct Debit activity so you can mitigate any issues that should arise. In order to continue further Direct Debit payments to a service provider, a new Direct Debit instruction must be issued.

This will require re-joining, or re-subscribing to the service you were previously using. Failure to do so will result in the Direct Debit payment being returned to the bank account.

 

If your business needs revenue management services, contact DFC here. We do more than simply manage your cashflow.

Hooray for the internet! Without it, we wouldn’t have cats and cucumbers, email and lazy shopping experiences. Gym personnel would also find themselves working a lot harder to onboard members.

Luckily for them, somewhere amongst the myriad of YouTube wormholes and social media, we also have an equally brilliant web function called online joining, removing the hassle of membership collection once and for all.

What is an online joining portal?

Back in the day, people would have to fill out physical forms if they wanted to sign up to a Direct Debit. This was a great deal of rigmarole for customers, who would have to deliver said form to an organisation in person or by post, as well as a pain for organisations, as they would then have to find somewhere to store it.

A quick and convenient solution, the introduction of online joining allowed people to visit the website of the organisation in question and sign up to a Direct Debit from their couch or en route to a fitness class. It remains as one of the most prominent methods of obtaining Direct Debit payments for gyms, due to its ability to efficiently manage the constant flow of new members.

But there are a whole host of other benefits

• Online joining is available 24/7. People can sign up at their convenience, even after the gym’s lights are out for the night.
• The sign-up process is incredibly quick. A few personal questions, some bank details and it’s done with very little inconvenience to the customer.
• It provides an easy marketing tactic for gyms, who generally rely on a well-constructed campaign as a way of getting new members through the door. The sheer ease of online joining is an attractive sales point in itself. Beyond this, a link to the portal can be included in marketing collateral, encouraging people to sign up on the spot.
• Some online joining platforms come with a white-labelling option, tailoring the system to your brand.
• Membership fees can be adjustable. Got an offer on the go? You can amend the pricing to suit this.
• It’s paperless! All data can be stored safely online. This is automated and allows for a much more organised filing structure. Staff can devote more time to customer service and the gym’s facilities.

Can you give me an example of online joining?

DFC’s online joining portal, FastDD, is a popular choice amongst gyms and fitness clubs across the UK. A simple yet effective online sign-up tool, FastDD is bespoke to your branding and secure. Automatic bank verification reduces errors on entry, speeding up the process and ensuring higher conversion rates.

What really tips the scale for most gyms deciding between online joining options, is the smooth integration offered through DFC. As well as being easily implemented into your website, FastDD can also be linked up to a huge range of CRMs. If a CRM is not included in their catalogue, they are happy to extend their offering to include it.

Leisure Trust, Live Active, opted to use FastDD as a way of coping with a growing influx of new members. They needed a way to save time in-house and FastDD provided a fantastic solution. Marketing Manager, Karen Nichol, said: “DFC offered us an additional income generating opportunity. It’s allowed us to concentrate on sales rather than admin.”

 

Find out more about how you can streamline your gym’s membership provision through DFC here.

Let’s be honest. The one aspect people want to consider the least when signing up to a gym membership, or subscribing to their favourite magazine, is the finance implication. They want an easy ride. A way to continue their payments without any real effort on their part. Organisations want something similar.

That’s where Direct Debit comes in. A quick and simple way for people to sign up from the comfort of their couch, Direct Debit provides a solution that benefits businesses and and their loyal, paying customers in equal measures.

No late payments

Direct Debit membership and subscription payments are collected on an agreed basis. This could be weekly, quarterly, monthly or any other suitable billing frequency. Rather than taking payments from cards, a process which has high default statistics, fees are taken from the customer’s bank account directly and the responsibility falls on the business, or their Direct Debit bureau, to ensure continual transactions are carried out.

Incentives and discounts

Time is money. Whilst Direct Debit proves a cheaper alternative to card payments, which costs two to three per cent per transaction and a flat fee of 20-30p, it also saves a great deal of administrative tedium. This has positive repercussions for a business’s bottom line. Instead of chucking away cash on collection management, money saved by using Direct Debit can be focused on member retention and acquisition. It’s a win-win for both parties!

Convenient sign up process

Speaking of member acquisition, piquing a potential customer’s interest up that first transaction can prove laborious – sales teams will certainly sympathise! Ensuring a quick and simple sign-up process (and a grade A selling point) will make your sales team’s job easier. Gyms across the country use DFC’s online joining portal, FastDD, as a way for new members to easily join their organisation. It’s accessible 24/7, allowing people to join even after their doors have closed for the night.

Protected and adaptable

Maybe someone wants to increase their video subscription to premium, or your health club is being refurbished for a month. Unlike its inflexible cousins (think standing order), Direct Debit payment amounts or dates can be adjusted in line with fluctuations. Making transactional changes is easy. An organisation must simply inform the customer of any amendments up to ten days before taking the payment, as per the Direct Debit Guarantee. Immediate refunds will be made in case of an error on either side, and Direct Debits can be cancelled at any time.

Direct Debit bureau management

Organisations that rely on a Direct Debit bureau to manage their Direct Debit transactions will see their collection rates, customer acquisition and attrition, and their reputation improve. A Direct Debit bureau, such as DFC, will do all the difficult work collecting, managing and chasing customers, so that businesses are never left out of pocket. This way, businesses can dedicate more time to the people that truly matter – their customers.

 

Find out why so many organisations are using forward-thinking Direct Debit collection company DFC to collect Direct Debits from their members and subscribers here.

Another revolution around the sun, another celebration of record-breaking success for the ever-popular payment solution Direct Debit.

The latest figures published by Bacs detail continued growth for Direct Debit over the course of 2017. It would seem that this champion payment method isn’t set to decline in the minds of businesses and consumers anytime soon.

In 2017:

Direct Debit experienced 3.8% growth

The total value of Direct Debit transactions racked up to an impressive £1.3 billion.

 

That’s a whopping 155 million more payments per annum than the previous year

This brings the the total number of transactions in 2017 up to 4.2 billion, a big lead on 2016.

 

Direct Debit payments average out at an additional three more for every adult in the UK

Hooray! That’s a whole lot of new gym memberships, which can only mean a healthier population.

 

Bacs social media review figures show a 95% positivity rate for Direct Debit

It makes sense when you consider the array of benefits that Direct Debit provides.

 

Direct Debit contributed to the record processing high set by Bacs last June

With assistance from Direct Debit’s sibling, Direct Credit, more than 111 million payments were processed in just one day. This was 120,000 transactions in just one minute – an impressive PB!

 

On discussing Direct Debit’s positive growth trend over 2017, Bacs Chief Executive Officer, Michael Chambers, rightly commented: ‘quite honestly. the less that consumers and businesses need to think about the financial ‘plumbing’ the better!’

Very eloquently put. He’s right. Direct Debit is nothing if not convenient, and we at DFC look forward to seeing its convenience carry it to even more new highs over the course of the 2017. Stay posted!

One of the biggest concerns for gyms and leisure centres around the world is customer loyalty. A sharp and sudden drop in membership numbers is common during specific times of the year, such as the New Year when resolutions start to fade and people slowly lose the habits they want to build. It’s a difficult time of year especially for gym and leisure industries because business comes and goes depending on the time of year or the season and it’s important to build your business model around making customers stick.

If you want to inspire loyalty in your services, then it’s important to start building a business model around it. You need to think about things such as who you consider to be your ideal customer or the methods you use in order to reach out to them. What you invest your resources into can also drastically change the way your business works.

Many leisure centres and gyms find that it’s cheaper to keep their members loyal than spending money on finding new ones. This is usually because new members have access to special deals and discounts in order to entice them into joining. However, it’s not common to see those new members stay for longer than their trial or discount period. In fact, after attending your gym or leisure centre for a few days or weeks, they may disappear entirely.

By increasing your retention rates by as little as 5%, you’ll increase your profits a significant amount compared to aiming for new memberships. If your business model focuses on flexible memberships and drawing in customers with no-commitment deals, then you may find more success by offering long-term deals such as a 12-month contract or discounts on longer membership periods.

Since you’ll have fewer people coming and going, you’ll hold onto your loyal customers and this means you’ll spend less on administration fees or maintenance and more time on growing your business. Long-term membership deals also guarantee profits for a longer period of time, reducing the fluctuations in profit that many gyms and leisure centres are subjected to due to the nature of their audience.

Another advantage of focusing on retention is that you’ll have an easier time managing your cash flow, especially if you use Direct Debit to collect payments from your audience. Direct Debit payments are easy to implement and offer a great deal of convenience for your audience as well as your own business. It’s also much cheaper than other methods, and this helps you make room for discounts and loyalty incentives.

So to conclude, if your gym or leisure centre business suffers from seasonal fluctuations in memberships (and thus profit) change your business model to target long-term loyalty, not short-term convenience for your customers.

Gym businesses are constantly battling for the attention of consumers. Their audiences are the same and the services they offer don’t deviate much. After all, all gyms offer similar services so it can be difficult trying to differentiate yourself from the rest of the industry. But as the competition becomes more fierce, it’s a good idea to take a closer look at the money you’re spending in order to drive profits and increase your working capital to help you grow. This is a concern that we see a lot at DFC.

 

Coping With Competition

One of our clients, Think Fitness, wanted to change the way their business operated three years ago. The fitness industry in Scotland grew exponentially and Think Fitness were faced with competitors who were offering compelling budget services that reeled customers in. With cheaper rates and seemingly similar services, Think Fitness were struggling to stay afloat and were forced to follow their competition’s lead.

As such, they reduced their membership rates and cut down on the number of membership options available. Since this change and moving on to Direct Debit for payments, Think Fitness has seen a staggering 80% growth.

This success was in part due to Think Fitness’s adaptation to the gym industry in Scotland, but also because they added an additional payment method; Direct Debit. Direct Debit comes with many unique benefits that will help your business grow, but one of the most attractive advantages is the cost savings.

 

Simplifying Your Finances

Direct Debit has been proven to be a far cheaper alternative to other payment methods like cash and credit cards. As such, many organizations take advantage of the lowered cost by offering discounts and loyalty incentives. You’ve probably seen many gym companies offering new membership discounts and offers, but they probably also offer long-term savings to repeat customers.

Although this sounds like a complicated system to implement into a gym business, it’s perfectly possible thanks to Direct Debit’s low-maintenance nature and ease of setup. The less time you spend on managing your financial situation, the more time you can spend actually growing your business by promoting it and offering compelling deals to your audience.

Many Direct Debit services are built with convenience in mind. This is why online debit forms, such as Debit Finance’s FastDD, are accessible at any time of day. This means your customers can use it whenever and wherever they want. The signup process is incredibly fast and it’s convenient for both you and your customer.

One of the most worrying issues for gym companies is the thought of late payments. Unstable income is never desired and every business wants to have a stable income that can be predicted and planned ahead for. Thankfully, Direct Debit helps you stabilize your income so that your financial department has an easier time managing your financial situation.

 

Take Control of Your Finances

There’s no business in the world that wouldn’t want more control over their financial situation, and this is why we do everything in our power at DFC to give it back to you.

Our payment solutions will give you more say over how you control your cash flow and the tools we offer can help boost your profits much like Think Fitness’s case. We can even take care of your Direct Debits so that you have one less thing to worry about.

Our Fully Managed Service covers everything from billing your gym members to tracking where and how your income arrives. Let us take the task of managing your Direct Debits off your hands so that you can focus more on running, growing and advertising your business.

If Direct Debit is your chosen method for collecting membership and subscription or one-off payments then you’re already on a great path for your business and bottom line.

Despite this, it can still be a time-consuming endeavour to oversee administrational duties. Sometimes you need experts in place who can handle the process for you. But how do you ensure your organisation is receiving the best service? Here’s what you should be asking your Direct Debit bureau:

What do they offer?

Do they manage the Direct Debit process in its entirety? If so, does this match up to your needs? Is there anything they can’t do that will create more work for you?

What flexibility do they give your customers?

Your Direct Debit bureau is the expert in payment collection; therefore it stands to reason that they should be the one discussing it with your users. At DFC, our call centre is open 6 days week and is busy handling thousands of requests a day from customers.

How regularly can you bill customers?

If your bureau only allows collections to be carried out in fixed amounts then this detracts from the flexibility offered by Direct Debit in the first place, so it’s worth considering if they’re the right fit for you. Through DFC, billing can be scheduled on a weekly, fortnightly, 4 Weekly, monthly, quarterly, or annual basis, Monday to Friday.

Are they accommodating to the ebbs and flows of your service?

Some industries chop and change their membership/subscription strategy regularly. Take for instance the leisure industry, which relies on offers to get new members through the door. If this is the case, it’s important to find a bureau prepared to handle these changes quickly and efficiently.

Do they have the technology to allow you to track your payments?

It’s all well and good finding a company to manage your payment collections, but it’s still important you remain aware of incoming payments, failures, your best-paying customers and your worst. DFC’s reports provide insights into all your transactions and are available to view 24/7. These can be automated to be received daily, weekly or monthly.

Can they integrate with your CRM?

A seamless CRM is the oracle of every business. It’s no good joining the dots when you have data stored all over the place. This is why DFC integrates with many of the leading CRM platforms and deal with millions of API web service requests per month. They are even willing to expand if a CRM doesn’t fall into their current portfolio.

What are others saying about them?

“DFC is meticulous to detail and customer service is second to none, not to mention the expertise and advice they offer our management team at all levels.”

M Lyons, BH Live

“We now have two of our businesses using their service and won’t hesitate to integrate the system into new businesses and would highly recommend them to any prospective client.”

Niall Hebron, Reality Expansion Group

“With DFC we are confident that the membership payments will be collected every month, allowing us to plan our business and to reinvest into our facilities.”

Julie Watson, Slough Leisure

These are just some of the fantastic reviews left from happy DFC clients. Have a look at our Direct Debit solutions and see what we can do for you!