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Comfort, of Tuxedo Park, N.Y., decided to
partner with AVATAS Payment Solutions,
of Newton, Mass., to gain assistance in their
receivables process. Like many heating fuels
companies, SOS had grown into the habit
of extending credit terms and watching
their days receivables outstanding stretch
further and further away for them.
They knew they had to make some
changes to continue to provide valuable
service and thrive in this challenging
economy. The following is an interview
with Robert Spiegel, Vice President of
SOS, to help explain some of the beneficial
changes in their organization.
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Human Services (HHS) recently announced
the total fiscal year 2014 LIHEAP funding
released under the Continuing Resolution
(CR) apportionment passed by Congress
as part of the temporary deal to reopen the
federal government.
Overall, HHS released $2.9 billion in
regular block grant funding, which rep-
resents 90 percent of the fiscal year 2013
funding. The CR expires on January 15.
Congress is working on the final appropria-
tion funding level for LIHEAP as part of the
House and Senate budget conference nego-
tiations. LIHEAP supporters are asking for
$4.7 billion in total funding for 2014.
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With the right moves,
companies can make
an immediate impact
By Tracy Richmond, Avatas
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Like most dealers,
the vast majority of our payments tradition-
ally were via paper check. After consulting
with AVATAS, we very quickly learned the
expenses associated with waiting around
for these payments to arrive.
After some consideration, we decided
to forget about checks as the primary form
of payments, and put the focus on credit
cards. We now make a concerted effort
to put every customer on recurring credit
card payments, specifically MasterCard due
to the low processing rates for the home
heating industry.
We also strongly encourage budget
plans, even for those who are not cap cus-
tomers. This is a significant change from
our previous thought process.
We have also completely revamped our
website. We use it as a marketing tool and
push our online payments and promotions.
With the help of AVATAS, we promote
MasterCard’s Stand Up to Cancer promotion
on our website. This program encourages
customers to use MasterCard by donating
a portion of each payment to a nonprofit
dedicated to funding cancer research.
Not only are our processing fees lower,
but customers are also taking part in a
great cause. We also participated in the
MasterCard Utility payment promotion,
which was another incentive brought to us
by AVATAS.
Our website is now fully functional for
self-service. We allow our customers to
schedule their own appointments online
and of course, pay their bills via the AVATAS
gateway. The AVATAS online solution has
been instrumental to our online strategy.
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Encourage your customers to make
payments with MasterCard. It costs less to
accept credit card payments than to wait 30
days, or in some cases more, for checks.
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Fuel Assistance
2014 Initial CR Release of LIHEAP Block Grant Funds Continuing Appropriation Act, 2014
(INCLUDING TRIBAL AWARDS)
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