Automated Billing for Hotspot and PPPoE Customers With Noch Wired

To anyone who owns a Wi-Fi business within the country, it is no surprise that the product is not the problem - it is the collection. Every day comes with customers to remind, payments to verify and accounts to disable plus accounts to re-enable. With ten customers, it takes a notebook and a phone. With a hundred, it eats into your whole day. This is the challenge Noch Wired was designed to solve. What follows is how it automates the billing for hotspot and PPPoE customers. 

What billing automation really means

At a glance, billing automation is a name for the boring job of repetitive billing tasks. It means the system handles the mundane chores so that you don't have to. A customer pays and the system detects that the internet should come up. Time runs out and the system detects that the internet should turn off. Is the due date close? Well, the system will send a reminder. You still run the business and make the decisions, but you are no longer the one to push buttons. With Noch Wired, the mundane chores run on their own once you set your plans and prices, giving you back your evenings and reducing the risk of human error.

Hotspot and PPPoE - two types of customers

Before diving into how the automation works, it is important to understand the two types of customers a Wi-Fi business usually has - because Noch Wired handles both.

Hotspot customers are the walk-in type who usually connect to your Wi-Fi, hit a login page and choose a package such as one hour, day or week, pay and start browsing. You find these people in cafes, estates, hostels and shopping centers. They usually pay frequently and in small amounts so you need a fast and simple way to collect.

PPPoE customers are the regular type who have an account with a username and password, usually home or in a small office, and pay monthly. Steady internet is what they expect and so a mistaken cut-off upsets them quickly. Most owners end up with a mix of both and a good billing system has to handle the needs of each group in their respective way. That is why Noch Wired offers hotspot billing and PPPoE billing on one platform.

How hotspot billing works on Noch Wired

A hotspot customer's journey is short. They connect to your Wi-Fi and get a login page, which allows them to choose a package in their budget and pay. Noch Wired immediately enables their internet connection without having to check any SMS messages on your side. When the time or data in the chosen package has expired, connectivity is cut-off by themselves according to the rules you set. This is how hotspot owners prevent the losses that come up when people continue browsing after a bundle has finished.

How PPPoE billing works on Noch Wired

PPPoE customers are billed differently, and Noch Wired follows the rhythm of each customer. They have their own account with a plan, a price and a due date. When the due date arrives, the customer pays and Noch Wired records the payment against the correct account and keeps the service running.

Behind the scenes, Noch Wired employs RADIUS which acts as a gatekeeper. Every time a customer router is trying to connect, RADIUS checks if their account is in good standing before allowing them to come online. Serious internet provides use this standard method and Noch Wired puts it in your hands without asking you to build it yourself. You don't have to be an engineer to enjoy its benefits.

Getting paid without the hassle

Noch Wired works with the ways Kenyan customers already pay - including STK push, Paybill and Till. Every payment is matched to the right customer automatically so that you can stop relying on screenshots and long lists of transaction codes. A customer says they paid and you are unsure, you check the record and put an end to the argument. Over time you also get a sense of how much money you are making and from whom.

Reminders that save chasing people

One of the most annoying tasks of running a Wi-Fi business is chasing up people to pay. Most customers aren't being nasty, they just forget. Noch Wired sends automated payment reminders by SMS and WhatsApp so that a polite message reaches the customer before due date without you typing a single word. Customers who are reminded tend to pay earlier and you spend less time on calls and less time feeling like a debt collector.

A portal for customers to use at their own time

A lot of the calls you get are probably simple questions. How much do I owe? When does my plan end? Which package am I on? With Noch Wired, your customers can check this themselves at any hour, using a portal. You get fewer interruptions, and they get an immediate answer instead of waiting for your reply. In addition, your small business looks more professional, which helps when you want to get people to trust you with their monthly payments.

Managing your routers from one place

Billing and equipment go hand in hand since the system needs to communicate with your routers to enable and disable customers. Noch Wired works with MikroTik routers, which many Kenyan Wi-Fi businesses already use. Connect your router to the platform and the rules in the billing system reach it directly. To see how this setup looks, the Noch Wired blog has step-by-step guides for adding a MikroTik router and setting up your plans.

Who benefits most from Noch Wired

Just starting up a Wi-Fi business with a few customers? Noch Wired can help you start right with clean records and automated jobs from day one. A growing business that is stuck in a sea of messages and manual checks can pass on the repetitive chores to the system. And if you are not a software engineer (which is true for most), you get tools that big internet providers use in a form tailored for small and medium operators in Kenya.

Take a free trial

The best way to understand billing automation is to see it in action. Noch Wired offers a free trial, so you can set up a plan, connect a router and watch a test payment turn the internet on without touching anything. 

Click Try it free and spend an hour discovering - and you will quickly see how much of your day you can hand over.