John Myers Jr., Business Reporter

Audrey Marks, CEO of Paymaster Jamaica, says about 400,000 bill-paying clients utilise her agency on a monthly basis. - File

Bill payment agency Paymaster said yesterday it has signed two new customers in the cable and security sectors to its growing list of corporate clients, announcing at the same time it was making an 'aggressive' push for a market of one million customers.

It is currently at about 40 per cent of that target.

Chief Executive Officer Audrey Marks said at a press briefing that Paymaster has partnered with Telstar Cable Limited and Hawkeye Electronic Security Limited for their customers to pay bills at the agency's over 150 outlets islandwide or via the Internet.

Two weeks ago, Paymaster signed a similar deal with Life of Jamaica (LoJ), a major life and health insurance provider.

It's expected that the LoJ contract could boost Paymaster's market by 100,000 clients, representing the 40 per cent of the insurance company's 250,000 clients who pay their premiums at its offices monthly.

Those figures were not released in relation to the two new contracts.

Enlarge its customer base

Marks said yesterday that Paymaster, nowin its 10th year of operation, was aiming to enlarge its customer base to at least one million in the short term and then to 1.5 million over the long run.

An estimated 350,000 to 400,000 persons currently use Paymaster's services every month, she said.

Its big clients include utility companies Jamaica Public Service Company, National Water Commission and Cable and Wireless Jamaica.

"Now that we are offering for each customer (the option to) pay at least five to 10 different bills ... it gives us the opportunity to get more from each customer and that's the strategy that we are going for," Marks said.

"That is why we are diversifying the number of services that we offer. It is not a new strategy, but is really coming together now and we are much more aggressive."

Through what it calls the 10/10 Promotion, Paymaster is also offering every 10th person who uses its service a prize of $10,000 in bill payments as part of its 10th anniversary celebrations this year.

Sweetening the incentive

And Marks is promising to sweeten the incentive by lowering the service charge if the company achieves the desired market target. "If customers respond and we get to a certain level of transactions, the economies of scale can help us to offer an even more reasonable service price," she said. "It's not the usual thing in Jamaica, but Paymaster is not the usual company so I can see us doing that when we achieve our critical numbers."

The Paymaster CEO said the addition of the two companies was a significant move towards growing its client base. Payment options include cash, cheque, debit and credit cards.

Paymaster pioneered the bill payment business in Jamaica in 1997 with the use of a state-of-the-art software programme that facilitates multi-bill payments.

The agency has about 40 companies in Jamaica, including the major utility companies, and 70 others in the United States on its client list.