Bram Lerouge’s reaction to water company payment reminders
Doccle Managing Director, Bram Lerouge’s reaction to the sp.a communication on water company reminder costs.
Communication sp.a.
Every water company charges a different payment reminder fee and, according to sp.a calculations, some earn a considerable amount of money from it. The party has asked the Flemish government to put an end to this practice.
“I believe that most people pay their bills automatically, however, 15 calendar days is an extremely short window of time”, says Rob Beenders (sp.a). “If you happen to be on holiday or in hospital for instance, or you’re in the habit of paying all your bills at the end of the month, then you’re instantly penalised. This can’t be the intention. Give people 30 days to pay, as is the case with other bills.”
Reaction Bram Lerouge
Doccle CEO, Bram Lerouge: “A representative study[1] revealed that Belgians receive late payment reminders an average of twice per year. And this does often incur costs.
However, as the study also reported, Belgians place considerable importance on paying their bills on time: an impressive 80 percent say that they always try to pay their bills promptly. Late payments are either due to forgetfulness, or the simple fact that people find their financial administration a tedious chore that they occasionally put off for too long.
That’s why, at Doccle, we send a free reminder five days prior to the payment due date. We also work with colour codes, furnishing consumers with an at a glance view of when bills are due.
This clearly has an effect: indeed, our providers, including several water companies, send up to 50% fewer reminders to customers who pay via Doccle e-administration. This saves both sender and consumer the unnecessary costs associated with warnings and reminders. In addition, consumers who complete their administration electronically save more than thirty hours per year.”
Doccle, an interactive online platform that offers all documents in one digital environment, provides user-friendly solutions for alleviating this problem.
[1] Representative study conducted on 1051 Belgians by an independent research agency
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