PHILADELPHIA -

Buy-here, pay-here dealers probably often want to get into the wallets of their customers. Not necessarily in a creepy and illegal way, but rather to ensure the individual makes payments and remains current on their installment contract.

Well, with a new platform set to make a major launch into the BHPH space this month, operators now can find a way into their customers’ wallets — at least electronically, through a smartphone.

Walletron, which delivers a SaaS platform that automates brands’ presence in mobile wallets like Apple Wallet and Android Pay, is rolling out its moBills system to BHPH dealers. It’s one of the many technology launches set to be a part of annual conference hosted by the National Alliance of Buy-Here, Pay-Here Dealers that begins this coming Tuesday at the Wynn/Encore in Las Vegas.

Walletron chief executive officer Garrett Baird explained to BHPH Report during a recent phone conversation that the company is leveraging more than four years of refined service to national retailers and other brands to make moBills a tool that can help operators who have 50 accounts or 5,000 accounts in their portfolio. Baird pointed out that what differentiates Walletron’s offerings from other billing apps is how it’s connected to the default wallet app installed on smartphones.

“That is a key piece to our strategy. These mobile wallets have these always on, always available aspect to them,” Baird said. “There’s no trip to the App Store for the consumer. There’s no searching, downloading and installing. Instead, it’s a simple two-tap enrollment process to get going for the consumer. Once they’ve made that connection into the mobile wallet, we at Walletron essentially act as the plumbing between that consumer and the clients and brands we work with to keep that item in the mobile wallet up to date with the freshest information possible.

“When you have a presence in the mobile wallet, you enable the ability to communicate with the consumer via notifications as if you had an app but it’s leveraging these apps that already exist on these devices. I can light up that consumer’s smartphone with a completely branded message by virtue of just being there in the wallet,” he continued.

“We, on behalf of our clients, control that capability and allow them to send messages to consumers that are event-based or campaign-based. All of this pulled together creates this fantastic communication channel for our clients to communicate with customers,” Baird went on to say.

And for BHPH dealers, that means having another way to reach their customers when their payment is due — or if it’s over overdue.

Furthermore, Baird emphasized it takes just two taps by the customer to have your store’s related finance company embedded into a customer’s mobile wallet. He reiterated four of the main advantages that can help operators increase payment frequency while reducing costs if the dealership still prints and delivers paper statements.

• Easy pre-prepared and scheduled, or customized and immediate, push notifications regarding pre-payment so your customer never forgets when the bill is due. Although these look like texts and “wake up” the phone above the lock screen, as they are tied into the mobile wallet feature of the phone, Walletron indicated these messages are not considered texts for regulation purposes overseen by federal agencies.

• Easy bill presentment, mobile invoices, billing and account history, all linked to the customer’s mobile wallet in their smartphone.

• Easy customer payment through the mobile device, by credit/debit card, bank account, or through connections to a cash payment network.

• Post due date or payment push notifications, again timed and pre-prepared, or customized and immediate; with the ability to send additional messages, coupons or updates on sales or service specials.

“The moBills bill payment technology takes the BHPH industry to a whole new level of efficiency in bill payment, using the device that 97 percent of smartphone users already have in their hand,” Baird said.

Walletron will be presenting special offers to attendees in Las Vegas next week for NABD 2017. Dealers can still register for the event by going to www.bhphinfo.com or by calling (832) 767-4759.

Baird mentioned another Walletron client had nearly 20 percent of its customers completely connected via moBills and the mobile wallet within the smartphone within six months of the launch. He’s bullish about the BHPH industry adopting this technology even faster.

“We think we can blow away those results in this particular space just given these customers and their centrality to the smartphones in their lives in helping them remember to pay much easier,” he said.