The most genius payment reminder technique I have come across.

It’s so overt, that it’s covert.

So I might be wrong with this, but even if I am this is something that can definitely change the game as far as payment recovery is concerned or it did at least for me.

A brief background.

My phone bill payment is no longer automated. Pre-Covid, it used to be paid for by my office, hence I never used to worry about it.

During the pandemic, however, I have every month, been behind on the payment.

(Not because I can't pay, it is more of I am not habituated to remember and I don’t care enough about the late fee to pay it on time.Sounds stupid, but it’s true)

So initially, I’d get calls from designated numbers to pay the bill, as reminders. Pretty soon, I blocked those numbers, because I anyway don't answer calls from unknown numbers, and these calls used to impinge on whatever it is I was doing.

All of a sudden what I am stating below started happening, and I am going to highlight each tactic as I see it.

Suddenly my phone screen lights up with a notification.

This happens every 5 minutes.

This notification is not a reminder to pay the bill, it is a notification about offers, discounts, OTT Platforms, and anything else but to pay the bill.

(Obv the operator is making money from this, but these are not shown to users when their account is in good standing)

Even with my phone on DND, the screen lights up.

These notifications are in different formats:

Push

Text

An audio message about caller tunes before my call starts to connect to someone.

These notifications are designed to distract, considering even when the phone is silent, it seems to beep. The screen lights up on my desk when I am working with the phone on it.

They are designed to beat the person by annoying them.

Someone at the phone company has come up with the ingenious idea of annoying the user till they get fed up and pay the bill.

When I do pay the bill, all of these stop. Immediately.

It is an unsaid understanding, pay the bill and this won't happen.

I am not sure if anyone reading this has ever come across this or if this is an obvious tool used, just sharing my personal experience.

Amazing way to be non-intrusive yet unbelievably irritating and effective at the same time.

I have paid my bill this month.

No, I am not smoking anything, this actually happens.

My phone company manages to annoy me enough to pay the bill without ever contacting me directly to ask me to pay.

I wonder if this can be used for other industries?