Unravelling non-Paygo assets distribution and operational challenges with PaygOps

Pay-as-you-go (Paygo) has emerged as one of the most successful business models to tackle energy poverty and financial inclusion for the rural and low income populations through technology-enabled payment systems. Last-mile distributors have been exploring the potential of Paygo for emerging markets, offering a wide range of products and services beyond solar to a larger number of customers that can not afford to pay them on a lump sum.

Nonetheless, the application of the Paygo model to sectors such as access to clean energy, agriculture, health, water, transportation, sanitation and even innovative micro-credit solutions, brings its own challenges to distributors: the engagement with the customer becomes longer - from having some few interactions with the client to being committed to a long term contract in which customer support needs to be provided until the total amount of the loan is paid; being able to track payments; analyse the default risk of clients; analyse the information of potential customers that would receive the loan and their repayment capability; manage mobile payments; automatically adjust the length of the contract if payments are delayed… among others.

PaygOps features are flexible and their use can be adapted to different industries. Here are some examples of how PaygOps can support the distribution of non-paygo devices that are being sold under a leasing or “rent-to-own” model:

1. Sales Support

• PaygOps Offline mobile app allows field agents to create leads on the field and register new customers.

• PaygOps Lead Generator feature allows the Management team to monitor the performance of the sales agents and know how many new leads and customers they have onboarded

• Distributors are able to evaluate the financial information of the leads and assess the credit risk

2. Lease/Contract Management

• Build payment plans adapted to the different services. For example: distributors selling irrigation systems and agricultural appliances can adapt the payment plans to the harvest season.

• Manage both cash and mobile payments

• Consult the status of the payment of the customers

• Provide discounts to the customers

3. Add-ons

For some distributors it is critical to be able to sell additional products or services to the customers. For example, distributors of e-bikes may sell the battery swap / recharging as an additional service; or organizations providing agricultural products may sell fertilizer packages on top to solar water pumps and/or solar home systems.

PaygOps Add-ons feature allows distributors to register these sales, automatically modifying the original contract and tracking the status of it’s repayment.

4. SMS Communication

PaygOps allows distributors to communicate with potential customers and current clients via SMS.

• Send bulk SMS campaigns to potential customers to inform them of a new product or of a discount or promotion

• Send automated payment reminders and payment confirmations to the clients, via SMS.

• Inform the customers about their loan status via SMS

5. After-sales and Troubleshooting

PaygOps offline mobile app allows agents to create interaction reports on the field after visiting a client. These reports will notify the Customer Service team about an existing issue with the device or any difficulty to process a payment

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About Solaris Offgrid:

Solaris Offgrid supports distributors of essential services to build strong customer traction and greater relations with investors through flexible and inclusive Paygo solutions, designed for last-mile operations. Adopting a bottom up approach in the design of its solutions and creating synergies with a strong network of partners to solve last-mile challenges, the company has already deployed Paygo solutions in more than 30 countries through PaygOps, Solaris Offgrid in-house software solution built “In the Field, for the Field” and its product development services. Leading reference in the off-grid solar market, PaygOps, is engineered to deliver modular and interoperable solutions to address off-grid energy access challenges and distribution complexity. For more information on PaygOps, please contact [email protected].