Stephenson & Threader

The challenge

Manchester-based independent professional insurance brokers Stephenson & Threader provide home, car, travel, public liability, and business insurance to a broad customer base. It’s a lot to keep track of, and they use sector-specific SSP software to help them manage the admin. Behind this system is a payment gateway called Realex, which the Blink Payment platform can easily integrate with.

Iain Worrall, Director of Stephenson & Threader, sets the scene, “We were introduced to Blink Payment by a third party because we thought our payment procedures could do with improving. This proved to be a bit of an understatement.”

Iain continued, “Taking a closer look at the situation that had evolved, we found we were waiting 3-5 working days to get paid, making accurate reporting impossible. We were using three different systems to accept payments and two different acquirers in an effort to separate the payment types. Plus, quite a few of our employees were tasked with chasing customer payments over the phone each week. It was a nightmare.”

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The solution

The introduction to Blink Payment obviously couldn’t have come at a better time for Stephenson & Threader. In fact, the transformation was so necessary that Iain gave the go-ahead and submitted the order two working days after the initial meeting with Rafi Dines, Account Executive at Blink Payment.

^{As Rafi explains, “Our ability to provide next-day funding was a big hit with Iain and his team. This means that, when a card payment is made, Stephenson & Threader receive the funds the next working day – helping them enormously with their cash flow.”}

Blink has its own reporting suite; insurance brokers can now create daily, weekly and monthly reports. Bank reconciliation is done automatically, saving their employees a great deal of time. Credit and debit card transactions, direct debit and open banking payments can all be taken care of in one place with Blink Payment.

Employees are no longer wasting their time on awkward phone conversations with customers about getting their invoices paid. Instead, they can now send a payment link to their customers via SMS or email and settle the bills online. The links are customised with Stephenson & Threader branding too, helping customers trust the online transaction environment even more.

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The outcome

The insurance industry is all about providing peace of mind for policyholders. So it made a nice change for Stephenson & Threader to be at the receiving end this time. As Iain says, “ The changeover to Blink Payment from our existing providers was completely stress-free. Rafi and the technical team implemented many new tools and solutions for us, yet we could still retain our SSP insurance management software to work in conjunction with the new platform.

^{Iain adds, “I’m totally blown away by the difference Blink Payment has made to our payment and reporting processes.”}

Rafi’s report was glowing, too, “The whole installation process only took 9 days and didn’t impact the day-to-day business of the insurance broking firm. Liaising with Iain as we delivered each project stage was a joy. Even considering that he’s a Man City supporter and I’m Man U, we both got on very well and kept our eyes on the ball.”