Coast Air Center (CAC), located in San Diego CA, is a provider of premier aviation services to the Southern California region. CAC has used Captivated to dramatically improve contact with service customers and facilitate invoice payments via Captivated’s Text to Pay functionality.
HOW CAPTIVATED IS HELPING
- Secure Chat drives strong communication with service customers
- Text to Pay delivers invoices and significantly improves payment capture
- Process yields few “past due” customers and healthy cash flow
- Dollars saved in credit card processing pays for the solution
- Overall platform saves money, time, and hassle
BEFORE CAPTIVATED
“It was a lot more difficult to get a hold of customers,” explained Jared Slatnick, owner and operator of the maintenance center at Coast Air Center. “I’d send them emails to collect payment and they’d tell me they’re going to send a check. Unfortunately, the check was always ‘in the mail.’ It was a hassle.”
Once a plane is serviced, it is standard procedure for CAC to hold it until the invoice is paid. Yet, this was rarely found to be motivation for customers to pay on a timely basis. “Sometimes they would keep their plane here for 2-3 weeks, which means we’re not paid for 2-3 weeks.”
This may not seem significant, but any delay in payment from the 6-8 customers that Slatnick services each month can impact the health of the business. “Because we’re working on aircraft, our bills add up quickly to the tens of thousands of dollars. When customers failed to pay in a timely manner, there was a major impact to cash flow.”
WINNING WITH CAPTIVATED
The move and the solution were simple. “When I made the switch to Captivated, I began texting my customers and providing a link to the invoice for them to make payment,” stated Slatnick.
“In the past it would take weeks, just trying to reach someone and take a credit card over the phone. Now, every single person I send an invoice link gets my text and pays within minutes. In fact, the longest I’ve ever seen it go was ten minutes. It’s so easy.”
Slatnick is referring to the ease with which his customers access their invoice, review it, and pay within the same mobile experience. “From the customer standpoint, it’s so simple. You open it up you have Apple, Android Pay, Samsung Pay, autofill for credit card — there are no excuses, and the customer knows it.”
“And for those who have a credit card on file with me, it is a simple text to notify them of the amount that is to be charged,” shared Slatnick. “Again, I hear back within minutes, whereas email was always hours or days.”
Slatnick enjoys additional benefits beyond those associated with Text to Pay. “It’s very easy for me to contact my customers with Captivated’s Click-to-Call feature — quick and easy. I also save money because of the low rates in the credit card processing offered through Captivated. It may not seem like a lot, but I save hundreds of dollars with them.”
WHY CAPTIVATED?
With plans to increase its usage across the larger operation in time, Captivated’s benefits are fairly clear to Slatnick. “Captivated saves me time, money, and hassle,” he remarked. “I would definitely recommend switching to Captivated. I’m even showing it to other service centers in my area. It quickly pays for itself and really is the future.”
Interested in how Captivated can bring this same level of success to your business? Text us today at 317.316.3188
