When we think of big purchases in our lives, the ones that come to mind immediately are that first car, the first home and, of course, our education. Each are experiences full of trepidation and excitement in equal measures and are likely to involve multiple people giving advice and financial support along the way.
For international students and their benefactors, sending money across the world can be particularly fraught, with both real and perceived complications. It requires a lot of trust, and the nerves won’t fully subside until the student is sitting in the lecture hall on the first day of term.
To look after students and the people that support them during this process, there are several pillars educational institutes can follow to remove payments friction and improve the overall experience.
1. Create a single sign-on and integrated portal for all student payment requirements
We’ve all had that feeling of purchasing something online and, when we go to pay, we are suddenly brought to a new page with branding we haven’t seen up to that point. It immediately raises our suspicions that something untoward is happening and the word ‘scam’ starts bleeping on our radar.
This is the same for students that go to pay their tuition or accommodation fees and are bounced around different websites to complete the payment.
Educational institutes should ideally have a single portal that sits within their brand for students to complete every part of the payment process.
By centralizing how you handle international payments in a way that integrates with your Student Information System (SIS), you’ll foster much greater trust with students and their families. All data will be in a single source, resulting in clearer confirmation to the payers and less queries to your team.
2. Clear breakdown of fees and FX rates with low transaction costs
A constant problem for educational institutes is not receiving the full fee from the students, and it’s often not the fault of the student. It results in unnecessary back-and-forth communication, delays confirming of places, and causes significant problems tracking and reconciling payments.
In the payment portal, live exchange rates should be given at time of payment, with the option to ‘lock-in’ a rate for an agreed period of time (this can help the student if the need to move funds before payment, which can take time). The invoice should be given in their local currency so it is easy to understand and will prevent the payer going and checking FX rates on-line and essentially guessing how much they should pay.
The other key ingredient is ensuring that you provide the best exchange rates and lowest transaction costs possible to the student and their families. If they independently research alternatives and find better solutions, they may pay using methods outside of the norm (resulting in administration difficulties) or simply leave the payment process with a sense of distrust.
3. Provide multiple payment options
Everyone has their preferred method of payment. People often get locked in fairly early on how they spend their money, and it’s important to have that wide variety of options to people so they can pick the way they know and trust.
Again, it’s important here to integrate these payment methods within your payment portal. Through modern APIs and integration tools, this a very achievable solution, and helps keep all data streamlined for a smooth payment process for both the student and the educational institute.
4. Have multiple languages in the payment portal
Having multiple languages in a payment portal can greatly benefit students and their parents who are paying international student fees. It makes the payment process easier and more accessible for those who do not speak the primary language used in the payment portal.
It also increases the likelihood of timely payments, leading to more successful financial outcomes for both the institution and the student, reducing stress and uncertainty around the payment process.
While it’s close to impossible to cover all languages for students, providing translations in major languages within your payment portal will remove friction from the experience.
5. Have regular and clear communications throughout the payment cycle
There’s a statistic in sales that says you need to have around 8 ‘touchpoints’ before even getting a meeting with a prospective customer, and the same can be said for getting someone to click ‘confirm payment’.
We’ve all ignored emails with ever increasing levels of alarm in the subject lines, and then do it all at the very last minute.
The important thing is to have that line of communication open early, with clear call-to-actions contained within, and not to cut that communication once payment is made. Instant confirmation of payment received, or that the payment is being processed, will give students that level of trust required not to make a phone call to your administration team.
6. Provide live, multi-lingual support
People like to talk to people when making big decisions. Even with the digital nature of our lives, and the increasing sophistication of chat bots, still our first instinct when we reach an obstacle is to pick up the phone and talk to a human being.
Providing live, around the clock multi-lingual support will cut off many problems early. It will ultimately reduce queries to your team, reduce the possibility of payments going wrong, and give that trust factor to the payer that there are real people looking after them.
Removing friction from international student payments is a collaborative effort
There are lots of elements that go into a smooth payment experience for an international student and their family. From the finance team, the marketing team, the technology providers you work with, to all the other elements involved, it can require heavy lifting and a strong project plan to bring it all to fruition.
The end result though is a better experience for the student, an easier workload for the administration team, and a better financial result for the institute. When we think of those big payments in our life, it’d be nice to focus on what we were paying for, and not for how painful the experience was to reach that outcome. When we remove as much trepidation as we can, we can all revel in the excitement of what education can provide.
To contact the TransferMate Education team, click here, or connect directly with Thomas on LinkedIn.
