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The British Academy of Cosmetic Dentistry (BACD) is committed to promoting the practice of quality cosmetic dentistry. It processes around 600 Direct Debit collections totaling £22,000 per month alongside renewal communications for 750 members.
The BACD is a world-leading authority on cosmetic dentistry. Its members include dentists, technicians and students who share a commitment to clinical excellence. BACD dentists offer patients the latest treatment solutions including smile makeovers, dental implants and short-term orthodontics.
Suzy Rowlands is the Executive Administrator at the BACD. She has responsibility for managing the membership scheme’s annual subscription payments and renewals. She runs an extremely lean operation using PTX from Bottomline.
BACD used paper-based Direct Debit mandates and online banking to collect annual membership fees. However, this was time-consuming and cumbersome, and the forms needed to be physically stored and archived. Following a recommendation from Barclays, BACD implemented PTX to manage all Direct Debit processes.
Suzy says, “PTX has enabled me to eliminate the complexity of managing Direct Debits and move towards a paperless operation. We have improved efficiency across the Direct Debit lifecycle whilst ensuring full compliance with Bacs Direct Debit scheme rules. PTX came with a strong recommendation from our relationship manager at Barclays and I have been really pleased with how PTX has enabled greater control and visibility over our cash flow and cash management.”
Once a month, Suzy creates a file of all Direct Debits that are due and simply ‘drag and drops’ the file into PTX which automatically applies a set of business rules to verify and validate the collection data. This ensures the sort code and account number exist, are active and belong to the member in question.
To automate annual renewal processes, BACD has implemented PTX Connect, a cloud-based document management system. Bottomline consultants designed a BACD-branded email template and a new Direct Debit mandate form for entering instructions.
Twice a month, Suzy creates a file of membership renewals. She says, “Once I upload the data into PTX Connect, it automatically creates and sends renewal emails to members. The process is simplicity in itself. The forms are prefilled with details such as the membership level and category. This makes it easier and faster to complete for a better customer experience which in turn contributes to our high renewal rates of 95%+.”
A paperless system ensures any issues with data on a new Direct Debit instruction are identified far more quickly as BACD is not waiting for paper copies to be posted by the member and then processed by the bank.
PTX Connect allows BACD to schedule the outbound renewal communications, Suzy continues “I can set up the renewals in advance and don’t need to worry about what happens if I am out of the office. PTX Connect also gives me visibility over the status of every email – has it been delivered, opened or clicked on. All emails are securely stored in the cloud, and available 24 x 7, which helps with dispute and query resolution, and to meet our audit and compliance obligations.”
“Managing our renewals is vastly more streamlined now. We are no longer printing and posting renewal reminders so we save on postage costs and we’re not at the mercy of the postal system too. The time that I have saved on setting up new instructions, is time I can spend on managing other projects – this is invaluable to me.”
PTX - robust, reliable and easy to use
Suzy explains, “Implementing PTX has been one of the smoothest projects I’ve ever worked on. I just couldn’t believe how simple and intuitive the interface is. It eliminates an enormous amount of time and effort, and delivers a better experience for both the customer and for me personally.”
In conclusion, Suzy states, “I will continue to recommend Bottomline and PTX to any company that wants a robust, reliable and easy to use Direct Debit and document management system. PTX has transformed what was a manually intensive and quite frankly boring but important activity, into one that is simplified, streamlined and efficient. I honestly couldn’t see how we would manage without it.
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