“The great enemy of the truth is very often not the lie, deliberate, contrived and dishonest, but the myth, persistent, persuasive and unrealistic.”
John F. Kennedy
Your school would like to implement the cashless mode of fee payment. Longs queues at fee counters, cash changing hands, your staff working overtime in the accounts department – Covid-19 will not allow it! The pain unleashed on mankind by the coronavirus begs for safer, contactless transactions. However, your staff and students or parents are filled with apprehension! You sense resistance to your plans. Parents have expressed their opposition to your idea by citing a number of reasons.
You wonder how you can respond to apprehensive parents and dispel their fears with regard to digital fee payment. But they insist: What if the school is charging more from them to cover the cost of digital fee payment software What if their account details get stolen while they are making their online fee payment? And then, where are the human beings they can reach out to in case of an error or a technical glitch?
Myths about online fee collection abound. Unfortunately, myths imply ignorance and misinformation. In the case of fee collection, these myths can seriously hamper the seamless adoption of fee management systems. Which is why it is imperative that you reach out to those who resist going digital and dispel the myths associated with digital fees.
Here are five common myths about digital fee payment that need to be busted:
1. Your payment via fee management portals is not secure:Nothing can be further from the truth! Payment via a cloud-based payment portal or app would have multiple layers of security. To begin with, a unique login password is issued to every parent or student. Secondly, every transaction record and account detail is encrypted, and then stored on the cloud, which can be compared to a virtual safety vault for your payment information. Also, the best payment gateways that are PCI compliant are available for your transaction. Finally, most cloud-based school fee payment apps or portals follow the SSL protocol, which makes the system truly iron-clad for you!
2. Small schools and colleges cannot guarantee payment security:
Now that mobile technology and digital fee management software have become commonplace, all users of this software have access to the same security set up and tools. So whether a school is a local institution tucked away in a small town or a high-profile Multi-Academy Trust spread out over several campuses and metros, the institution will be required to comply with the same Payment Card Industry (PCI) security standards. So your account details are secure, whether you pay your fees at a large institution or you choose to pay them at a lesser known local school.
Digital payment systems are known to bring down administrative and labour costs substantially. In fact, payment software is one of the most cost-effective systems in the market today. E-receipts have replaced traditional receipts and bills , thus reducing expenses on stationary. The cost of maintaining fee counters and deploying accountants to handle and manage cash flows is also eliminated. Schools save on infrastructure costs too, since there is no need for high cost servers, UPS, computers and printers. With reduced human resource, infrastructure, stationary and transportation costs, your online system can prove to be ultra cost-effective. The question of pushing costs of software implementation on the parent therefore does not arise!
Read More: Upgrade to School Fee Management Software for Secured Online Fee Payments!
4. The human touch is missing:Human interaction comes in several forms and via a variety of routes. The human interactions at fee counters are not memorable affairs! However, online payment portals provide 24/7 service , with live chat facilities which can resolve within minutes any issues you may be facing while wiring the fees to the school. A 24/7 helpline number is also usually available in case something goes terribly awry (which is highly unlikely, given the safeguards put in place to prevent frauds and errors).
5. You have to be tech-savvy to pay school fees online:
You need to be literate for sure, and you need to have access to a smart-phone or computer or any other internet-connected device. But if you can operate a smartphone, you can pay school fees online without being a techie. In fact, the online digital fee payment industry has adopted the most mobile-responsive technology so you can make your fee payments on the fly, with simple, clear, easy-to-understand instructions to guide you through the process till your transaction is successful.
As going digital becomes the new mantra for all schools and colleges, and parents get used to paying fees online, these myths will disappear. But, as of now, it is paramount that the user’s anxieties be mitigated and myths debunked systematically and rationally, to encourage parents, students and staff to embrace the new technology wholeheartedly. After all, online fees payment software is one of the smartest weapons against Covid-19!