If your current school payments provider no longer aligns with your needs, it is time for you to look around and conduct a market analysis to find a new all-rounded service that offers you the best deal. This process can be challenging depending on your requirements, and especially on the current contract you have with a provider. However, after following our experts’ advice about dealing with contract renewals, let us help you throughout the switching process and how easy it could be.
What unique features does your new provider need to offer?
Phone-based support team
Typing your issues to a bot when you need support doesn’t even compare to how easy it is to get a real human being to listen to you instead. Chatbots or Frequently Asked Questions pages can be a quick alternative, but speaking to a person on the phone allows you to explain exactly your struggles and to receive a specific answer. At WisePay, our UK-based support team are dedicated to helping our schools around the system, whether it’s on the phone or by email. If you need further support, we regularly host webinars and provide you with printable resources to guide you through some processes that may require guidance.
Safety and PCI Compliance
You should be able to fully trust your payments provider and be guaranteed that your families’ bank details are being handled securely. There are regulations in place managing how processors of card information handle your transactions to keep your data safe, and WisePay, along with our sister company SchoolMoney, is a Level 1 PCI DSS compliant platform with our own certification, which is rare in the payment platform space. Find out what PCI compliance is and why it’s essential for a school payments provider in our blog.
Versatility in Payments
Being inclusive is important even when keeping your organisation cashless. Allowing families to pay in instalments is a great option to break bigger transactions up into smaller chunks, for instance when collecting payment for a school trip. Recurring payments are also available on specified WisePay services, which saves time for staff and for users. To make your transactions even faster, we have developed Google Pay on our platform, which allows people to complete a payment by touch or face ID.
Complete Solution
Your payments solution should be a lot more than that; you should have access to a digital platform that makes management of your admin tasks a lot easier than doing so manually. WisePay is a complete solution as it allows you to do this all in one centralised place.
- Mobile app: For the families on the go, an efficient app gives them easy access for quick transactions compared to a web based platform. Giving them such a convenient option improves engagement.
- The sky is the limit: Everything that requires a payment can be taken care of with WisePay. Whether it’s meals, clubs, trips, shop items… Not only does this help you reduce cash handling, it also facilitates management and reporting as bookings and finances can be tracked digitally.
- Income generation: Did you know an online payments platform can help your organisation generate income? Whether it’s through an online shop feature where you can sell stationery, uniform, and textbooks, modules like Smart-Booker can help you turn your existing facilities into revenue. Find out more about income generation here! These features will leverage every aspect of your educational landscape, turning existing space services into revenue.
- More Automated Payment Solutions: Not only does WisePay integrate with all leading catering vendors in the UK, it also has a host of APIs that can be utilised by our customers. WisePay provides solutions for Exam results and eligible re-marks per student, more efficient way to populate larger volumes of couse/activity data and simplifying registration processes for prospective students at colleges and independent schools.
- Communications integration: Aside from giving your school community a tool to complete payments, it’s also essential to be able to keep in touch with them and deliver important announcements. WisePay is part of the Community Brands family, where we help educational organisations succeed: contact us to find out more about the communications solutions we can offer you that provide a single sign on with WisePay to let you handle all your processes under one roof.
This list should give you a clear idea of all the components you should be looking for in a payments platform, so it’s time to start researching. And while you’re here, get to know WisePay and our variety of modules that can help your school reach its full potential. Speak to our team to know more!
