Fix Your Billing Experience: A Practical Guide to Better Outcomes (Part 1)

Billing has long been treated as a back-office function. But for many organisations, it’s now one of the most frequent and visible customer touchpoints. When that experience is clunky, confusing, or inconsistent, the result is predictable: more late payments, more support calls, and more cost. The good news? A better payment experience is both achievable and measurable. It starts with a modern approach to billing—designing the journey as a service, not just a transaction.

The Problem with One-Off Solutions

Many teams try to fix billing with isolated solutions like redesigning a bill or adding SMS reminders. While these changes can help, they often fail to address the underlying friction. That’s why we developed the Payment Experience Maturity Model—a practical tool to help organisations assess their current state, align teams, and take realistic steps toward a better billing experience.

What a Modern Payment Experience Should Look Like

A modern payment experience should be seamless and intuitive. Glider’s white paper outlines what customers expect including:

• • Simple, login-free payment flows
  • Actionable reminders via mobile and email
  • Consistent messaging across channels
  • Flexibility in how and when to pay
  • The ability to act immediately, without friction or confusion

These expectations are the 'gold standard' and our maturity model provides an operational blueprint for achieving them. It helps leaders in CX, finance, and operations shift from reactive fixes to an integrated, customer-first billing system.

The Payment Experience Maturity Model: Four Stages of Progress

Our model provides a framework for assessing your billing experience across four key stages.

​​1. Reactive: Billing is manual, disconnected, and inconsistent. Reminders are minimal, and there's limited visibility into customer behaviour.
2. Tactical: Automation is introduced, but the experience is inconsistent across different channels like SMS and email. Analytics exist but are underutilised.
3. Integrated: A coordinated reminder strategy is used across multiple channels. Payment options are easy to access, and there’s clear visibility into engagement and payment status.
4. Proactive: This is a fully embedded, real-time payment experience. Messaging is adaptive and driven by customer behavior, with continuous optimisation based on data.

Why a Modern Billing Strategy Is Essential

With the rising cost-of-living and digital-first expectations now the norm, a good billing experience is no longer a 'nice-to-have'—it's a necessity. Customers want and expect payments to be seamless, intuitive, and easy.

According to research conducted by Glider and PayPal, a significant portion of Australians face challenges with bill payments. The research found that 53% of Australians have paid a bill late, often because of confusion or complexity rather than financial hardship. Cost-of-living pressures were cited by 77% of respondents as a factor making it harder to pay on time. The findings also highlight a clear expectation for modern, convenient billing, with 61% of people wanting mobile-optimised billing and 53% desiring "one-click" payments.

These findings underscore the need for timely, intuitive, and consistent customer communication that builds trust, not resistance. Our maturity model helps teams with fragmented systems and siloed responsibilities break this pattern by providing a shared language and measurable structure.

Most importantly, it’s not about overhauling your entire system but about connecting what you have more effectively

Ready to Get Started?

The first step is to download our Payment Experience Maturity Model template and assess your organisation's current state. Once you've identified your maturity stage, you can prioritise both immediate and long-term improvements.

The next step is to use our Payment Experience Audit Checklist to dig deeper into your current operations. This tool helps cross-functional teams evaluate the bill-to-pay experience across six core capabilities: Reminder Strategy, Tone and Messaging, Channel Consistency, Payment Flexibility, Use of Behavioural Signals, Overdue Response Design. The checklist is designed for use in workshops to identify friction points or operational blind spots, so you can prioritise improvements based on evidence, not assumptions. The Audit Checklist is designed to be used in a guided workshop environment, please contact us to arrange access.

Next in the Series

Assessing your payment experience maturity is just the beginning. The next articles in this series will guide you through:

• • Part 2: Identifying and fixing friction in your billing journey

  • Part 3: Designing proactive, consistent billing communications

Or, talk to us about how Glider can help your organisation create better billing outcomes, without complexity or overhaul: Speak with our team today.

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