Fizz Benefits is a membership scheme that lets employers reward staff with discounts at major brands. It has 47,000 customers in the UK.
“The cost of living crisis hasn’t gone away and our mission is to help everyone’s money go further,” said Jason Taylor, Founder and CEO, Fizz Benefits. “As a growing business ourselves, we also need to make our resources and efforts go as far as possible. We use GoCardless for automated and one-off payments because if we can outsource something, we will — but only if we know it's seriously good.”
Helping a small business behave big
Fizz Benefits started using GoCardless when it wanted to start punching above its weight during its crucial early phases of growth.
“We were about four years old and needed to behave big while being small,” said Jason. “But the mass-market PSP we were using made us look like a start-up."
We wanted a more professional-looking collections process that was also super easy for customers. GoCardless fit the bill perfectly.
Today Fizz Benefits uses GoCardless integrated with its Xero accounting package. Now, the moment a client is created in Xero and their online Direct Debit mandate is completed, their monthly invoices are scheduled for collection and all received payments are automatically reconciled.
“End-to-end, from branded digital mandates to automated payment reminders, GoCardless gives us the ultra-professional look we want,” said Jason. “It’s an all-digital process, which removes any barriers to acceptance for customers — signing up doesn’t get buried in their to-do list — and being easy to work with has helped us grow faster.”
The integration with Xero was a real ‘wow’ moment for the finance team, for whom GoCardless payments are strategically vital.
“Easy to use and efficient reconciliation of GoCardless payments is a comfortable fit with our daily cash management processes,” said Chris Smith, CFO, Fizz Benefits. “Greater control over payments and the timing of receipt provides significant benefits to credit control and greater confidence in forecasting and planning. There’s little doubt that GoCardless is our recommended and preferred payment method.”
Cashflow confidence
Cashflow can make or break any business, but Jason says GoCardless helps him stay on top of things — and get a few more nights of rest.
“The GoCardless dashboards and reports give us crystal-clear visibility into payment statuses,” he said. “Knowing exactly how much money is coming in, and when, saves me a lot of mental energy now and plenty of sleepless nights in the early days.”
It’s also a major advantage now because we almost never have to chase clients for payments. It’s like clockwork — once they’ve signed up to pay by GoCardless, those payments come in on time, at the same time, month after month. That gives me and the leadership team more time to focus on growth.
Instant Bank Pay
Fizz Benefits occasionally needs to collect one-off payments from clients for services outside the scope of their normal subscription. They can collect these payments hassle free thanks to Instant Bank Pay from GoCardless, which uses open banking technology. “We just send them an Instant Bank Pay link that’s pre-populated with all the right payment information,” said Jason.
We used to ask for manual bank transfers, but that wasn’t a great experience for customers and it made reconciliations messy. With Instant Bank Pay, customers don’t even know they’re using open banking — that’s open banking at its best and shows how much GoCardless is driving payments innovation.
A “must-have” for every business starting out
Jason’s experience with GoCardless means he’d place it high on the list of must-haves for every business starting out.
“Running a business is hard — only people who have tried it know the feeling of waking up at four in the morning fretting about cashflow,” he said.
“GoCardess has been created around the needs of business owners, large and small. I’d put it up there with the right insurance on the list of things every business needs from week one. I’ve been with GoCardless nine years and would a gazillion percent say, ‘just go with them for your payments.’”
