Q&A with Simsbury Connecticut: An Invoice Cloud Client of 8 Years

The Town of Simsbury signed up with Invoice Cloud in 2011 and Colleen O’Connor has experienced the entire process of implementing the new Electronic Bill Presentment and Payment system. She lives in Simsbury and has worked for the town for 29 years, originally working part-time for the Library then as a full-time Tax Clerk, until taking her current position as Tax Collector, which she has held for 15 years. She explained what has kept her there for so long by saying, “Believe it or not, I like dealing with the public and Simsbury is a great town.”

Emily: To get started, I first wanted to ask, why did Simsbury choose to work with Invoice Cloud over the competition?

Colleen: Quality Data Services (QDS) brought Invoice Cloud to us. We were using Official Payments at that point and we didn’t get a lot of online payments at all, so Bob Bennett, CEO, and Sam Evrard, now VP of Strategic Accounts & Partnerships, made an awesome presentation about the platform’s capabilities and it was a no brainer. We were so impressed by how easy it looked like it was going to be and Invoice Cloud was already partnered with our software partner, QDS. Bob and Sam had first visited our office back in May and we signed the contract so we could go live in time to send out our big tax bills on July 1st. I literally jumped at the opportunity at such short notice and we got everything done in just a week – the implementation process was unbelievably easy.

Emily: How has your online payment adoption been impacted?

Colleen: This has increased by a ridiculous amount – we now have at least as much money that we collect online as we collect from the mail in the drop box, if not more. Everyone was used to coming in to pay before, but now we have just a few people who like to come in and they say, “Where’s the line?” There are never any lines in the office anymore. I recently got an email on June 29th saying that we received our first “Over 1 million dollars pay in one day.” It has really changed the whole office.

Emily: How have your staff benefited?

Colleen: It makes our work much easier. We no longer needed one of our full-time people because the amount of work has changed so much, which is obviously good for the town to save more money. Our staff is very familiar with the system and we all have more time to work on other things and stay organized. Our billings are only twice a year: July and January. The amount of payments we receive on time is so much more than it used to be before Invoice Cloud. And, in the years before this, we would have been processing all these payments in house which would have taken a lot of time.

Emily: How have your billing costs been impacted since implementation?

Colleen: The email reminders have helped with costs because people pay sooner, which saves us money. Capturing the email addresses and sending out reminders as soon as a new bill payment comes up has made a huge difference and the people love it. I can’t tell you how many people have called the office and said, “If I didn’t get that email, I would have totally forgotten!”

Emily: What other feedback have you heard from residents?

Colleen: On top of the email reminders, people are really happy with the confirmation email that sends within five minutes after making their payment. The amount of calls from customers we get is nothing compared to the amount of payments that come through, so we can tell how user-friendly the software is.

Emily: What marketing tactics did you employ to promote the platform? Did you notice any results of employing said marketing tactics?

Colleen: We took advantage of the free marketing services provided by Invoice Cloud and decided right away to use envelope teasers, bill messages and bill inserts, which were amazing. We also used posters at the office – now the Town Clerk and the Library have signed up with Invoice Cloud, too. It makes the most sense for residents to use one, great payment system across the board.

Emily: Has your relationship with your customers changed since going live in 2011? If so, how?

Colleen: It has increased our collection rate because it’s so much easier for people to pay. People don’t need to come in during operating hours anymore, they can pay anytime, from anywhere. As painful as it can be to pay taxes, this makes it a little easier for them – now by paying online there’s no check getting lost in the mail and no more penalties for paying late. We’ve even had a handful of elderly people call the office worried that they can’t come in to pay because they’re sick, so we will give them the IVR number to pay over the phone and they are thrilled.

Emily: For my last question – what would you say to someone considering the Invoice Cloud platform?

Colleen: I would say definitely go for it. All they have to do is see a demonstration of the system and I think they would be sold on it. It’s very easy, there’s excellent customer service and if you compare the number of people paying online to the number of calls coming into the office with questions about the system – there’s your answer. It’s an extremely easy, user-friendly online bill payment system.