Developing e-invoice payment in Vietnam: Problems and solutions

invoices and e-invoice payment to answer customer inquiries, improve and expand services. They should also use forums and social networks as an information channel to promote the posi- tive spill-over about the benefits of e-invoic- es and e-invoice payment procedures to a larger base of customers. + Secondly, e-invoice creators in Vietnam should diversity the forms of providing e- invoice payment. To integrate many invoices at the same address and create a diversity of providing forms, e-invoice creators in Vietnam should take the following measures: (1) Using banks as a bridge to connect with e-invoice creators It is necessary to distinguish this measure from the one in which an e-invoice creator cooperates with several banks to proceed pay- ment, which means only customers with accounts in the partner banks can make pay- ment. In this measure, any bank can function as a bridge to connect all e-invoice creators, which means customers with accounts in any bank can make e-payment for their services. The procedure includes the following steps: Step 1: Customers register to create accounts in a bank. Step 2: The bank helps customers activate their registered accounts with invoice creators (electricity, water, cable TV, Internet, etc.) and download invoices customers need to pay for. 57 Trade Science Review TRADE SCIENCE REVIEW ’S TSR Step 3: The bank actively sends emails to customers informing them of different invoic- es they need to pay together with a link so that customers can turn back to the bank's website to view, download and make pay- ment. Step 4: Customers access the website of the bank where they open accounts to view invoices and make payment. Step 5: Information about means or accounts of payment customers declare is checked by the bank's server and payment is verified with invoice creators. Step 6: The bank sends to customers' emails the details of invoices which they have paid for and the details of transactions on accounts so that customers can print as needed. (2) Making payment via providers of pay- ment intermediation services This measure requires the payment inter- mediation service providers to connect with all banks and other payment systems. The procedures include the following steps: Step 1: Customers register with a payment intermediation service provider. Step 2: The payment intermediation serv- ice provider activates the account customers have registered with invoice creators to download invoices customers need to pay for. Step 3: Customers access the website of payment intermediation service provider to view information of the invoices and make payment. Step 4: Information about means of pay- ment of customers is sent to the bank cus- tomers open their account by the payment intermediation service provider to be checked and verified payment. Step 5: The bank where customers open accounts transfers money to the bank account of the payment intermediation service provider. Step 6: The payment intermediation serv- ice provider sends details of transactions to invoice creators and transfers money to the bank accounts of invoice creators. + Thirdly, e-invoice creators should coop- erate with many banks and integrate their systems with many payment devices such as e-wallet, credit card, etc. to create a wide choice of payment for customers. This helps e-invoice creators to solve the current com- mon problems when e-invoice payment sys- tem only allows customers with accounts in the partner banks to make payment. Besides, this measure also helps e-invoice creators to have more customers because despite owning other means of payment, customers can still make payment. Moreover, when using this system, customers can make payment via a consecutive procedure rather than coming back to the initial interface of the website. These are the problems which the current e- invoice payment system cannot solve. + Fourthly, e-invoice creators should develop more devices to provide supporting and customer care services to help customers view, download and proceed e-invoice pay- ment. Besides inquiries posted on call centres to which customers require immediate responses, there exist many questions and problems that they may not call for immedi- ate and direct answers. For these questions, they will search information on the websites of e-invoice creators, email, forums and social network. Therefore, to gain the entire effects of customer care, e-invoice creators in Vietnam should use the combination of the following tools: (1) As for FAQs system: pages of FAQs must be designed to quickly answer the ques- tions customers may have when getting to know about e-invoices and e-invoice payment or they face when making payment. FAQs must be placed in easy-to-see area so that cus- tomers can easily navigate it when accessing 58 Trade Science Review TRADE SCIENCE REVIEW ’S TSR the website of invoice creators. Besides, e- invoice creators in Vietnam should put them- selves in the position of customers, even ask their employees to make e-invoice payment to recognize what customers need to know about and what may arise in the e-invoice payment process. (2) As for the use of email to care for cus- tomers using eMS: e-invoice creators should use email as a real tool by creating a staff in charge of following the opinions, feedbacks and inquiries of customers when they view, download and proceed e-invoice payment via email. The best standards for supporting and taking care of customers via email are to answer them as fast as possible. According to consultation of Forrester Research, it is best that e-invoice creators answer customers' inquiries within 10 minutes. Of course e- invoice creators cannot always respond to every requirement of customers in this time frame but in these cases, they should inform customers that they have received their email regarding their inquiries and will contact them within fixed time. This helps customers keep track of the feedbacks and shows them that e-invoice creators pay good attention to customers' problems. (3) E-invoice creators should set up forums right on their websites to facilitate customers to discuss and share their experi- ence when they view, download and proceed e-invoice payment. In fact, most e-invoice creators in Vietnam have not yet provided this tool. Using discussion forums is a quite effect tool to support and take care of customers using e-invoice payment. As the forums are open, any customers using e-invoices and engaged in e-invoice payment can answer questions asked by other customers. This helps to reduce the pressure of e-invoice cre- ators in providing supporting services to cus- tomers. Besides, information posted on the forums related to customers' experience or methods of dealing with common problems in e-invoice payment is more objective, so it may enhance customers' trusts and have greater spill-over effects. (4) E-invoice creators in Vietnam need to establish their appearance in social network, use social network as a channel to provide cus- tomer services to customers using e-invoice payment. Social networks are creating a huge community with the fast speed of information transfer. Even electronic information pages or new press forms are sometimes less effective than social networks in spreading information, at least from time angle [1]. According to con- sultants in Rostin Ventures (company with over 20-year experience in consulting busi- nesses on how to raise customer recognition in e-commerce and public relation management), e-invoice creators should not consider social networks only as a sales channel but also a means to conduct customer services and attract new customers to join. Therefore, e-invoice creators in Vietnam should pay more attention to building up confidence from customers, interact with customers in a close, personal manner, share with them lots of information related to e-invoices and e-invoice payment. They should help customers who are viewing, downloading and making e-invoice payment solve their problems, even show customers to appropriate addresses to get the best solutions. + Fifthly, to create the best attraction and customer support, besides investing in and developing devices to provide supporting services, e-invoice creators in Vietnam should organize training for their staff on customer services. They should raise the IT compe- tence and awareness of their staff on e- invoice payment procedures, even issue poli- cy to ask their staff to use e-invoices and e- invoice payment so that staff can instruct users to follow the procedures fluently. 59 Trade Science Review TRADE SCIENCE REVIEW ’S TSR Besides, e-invoice creators should have spe- cific instructions to staff in charge of cus- tomer care services on the right attitude, behavior and enthusiasm when dealing with customer inquiries or complaints. They should also take measures to supervise these staff when they are on duty. Moreover, e- invoice creators should always check or take customer roles to make complaints and claims on e-invoices and e-invoice payment to test the responses as well as accuracy and timing of customer service staff. On this basis, e-invoice creators may make prompt adjustments in improving professional knowledge, behavior, attitude, enthusiasm of customer service staff. + Sixthly, e-invoice creators in Vietnam should have incentives to customers using e- invoice payment and provide different dis- plays to attract customers. E-invoice creators should provide incentives like granting bonus points to loyal customers or new customers, organizing lotteries for the first 1000 users of e-invoice payment in the month; discounting 5% off order value for customers engaged in e-invoice payment, etc. More importantly, to attract customers, the entire process of view- ing, downloading e-invoices as well as the whole payment procedures must be simple and appropriate to different types of cus- tomers so that it will boost the popularity of the e-invoice payment system to a majority of people. Furthermore, that the invoice creators support more forms of displays such as xHTML, HTML5 will make the process of viewing, downloading and paying e-invoices become easier when conducted on different mobile devices rather than limited to person- al computer as today. 5. Conclusion In Vietnam, e-invoice payment has become more complete in terms of forms and conveniences as it helps to reduce costs for equipment and printing, shorten the time of distributing invoices, enable the management and archive of invoices, create proactiveness for customers in viewing, downloading and making payment. However, to promote the development of e-invoice payment in propor- tion with investment in infrastructure and increase the number of users, e-invoice cre- ators in Vietnam should take synchronous solutions from the view of users. These solu- tions should be driven to creating conven- iences for customers by providing different forms of payment and choices of supports to customers as well as allowing them to make e-invoice payment in different devices. Summary Thanh toaùn hoùa ñôn ñieän töû (TTHÑÑT) laø giaûi phaùp lyù töôûng cho caùc nhaø cung caáp dòch vuï ñeå giao tieáp vôùi ñoái taùc vaø khaùch haøng trong vieäc taêng khaû naêng xuaát trình hoùa ñôn, taïo cô hoäi ñeå môû roäng saûn phaåm. Ñoái vôùi khaùch haøng söû duïng dòch vuï, TTHÑÑT trôû thaønh giaûi phaùp quan troïng hoã trôï hoï mua saém tröïc tuyeán, quaûn lyù haäu caàn, caûi thieän quy trình kinh doanh, chaúng haïn nhö loaïi boû döõ lieäu cuõ, taêng cöôøng quaûn lyù taøi chính, tích hôïp coâng cuï vaøo quy trình laøm vieäc hieän taïi [5]. Ñoàng thôøi, TTHÑÑT laø giaûi phaùp höõu ích ñeå caét giaûm chi phí cho caû nhaø taïo laäp hoùa ñôn (nhaø cung caáp haøng hoùa, dòch vuï) vaø ngöôøi chi traû. Haøng naêm taïi Myõ, soá löôïng hoùa ñôn ñöôïc ñöa ra söû duïng laø treân 20 tyû, chi phí cho moãi hoùa ñôn töø 2USD ñeán 5USD. Vieäc söû duïng phaàn lôùn TTHÑÑT ñaõ giuùp tieát kieäm khoaûng 47,5 tyû USD cho nöôùc Myõ haøng naêm. Taïi Vieät Nam, TTHÑÑT ñaõ coù thôøi gian phaùt trieån khoaûng 5 naêm tính töø naêm 2010 cho ñeán nay. Tuy nhieân, caùc heä thoáng TTHÑÑT taïi Vieät Nam chuû yeáu hoaït ñoäng mang tính chaát nhoû leû, manh muùn, chöa ñaït ñöôïc söï chaáp 60 Trade Science Review TRADE SCIENCE REVIEW ’S TSR nhaän moät caùch roäng raõi cuûa ñaïi boä phaän khaùch haøng söû duïng dòch vuï. Do ñoù, hieäu quaû hoaït ñoäng coøn quaù thaáp, söï phaùt trieån cuûa TTHÑÑT taïi Vieät Nam coøn quaù chaäm vaø ñang trong tình traïng daäm chaân taïi choã. Baøi vieát vì vaäy ñaõ khaùi quaùt moät soá neùt cô baûn veà TTHÑÑT, phaân tích thöïc traïng, ñöa ra moät soá giaûi phaùp ñaëc bieät veà ña daïng hoùa loaïi hình vaø thu huùt khaùch haøng nhaèm ñöa söï phaùt trieån TTHÑÑT taïi Vieät Nam leân moät taàm cao môùi. References 1. G. Kawasaki and P. Fitzpatrick (2014), The art of Social Media, Portfolio Penguin, US. 2. D. O'Mahony et al (2001), Electronic Payment Systems for E-commerce, Artech House, UK. 3. E. Turban et al (2010), Electronic Commerce: A Managerial Perspective, Prentice Hall, US 4. K. Terplan (2003), Electronic Invoice Presentation and Payment, CRC Press, UK. 5. Lixuan Zang et al (2003), Factors Affecting the Intention to Adopt Electronic Invoice Presentation and Payment, AMCIS, US. 6. Websites: teltelecom.vn 61 Trade Science Review TRADE SCIENCE REVIEW ’S TSR NGUYEN TRAN HUNG 1. Personal Profile: - Name: Nguyen Tran Hung - Date of birth: 10/12/1980 - Title: Doctor of Economics - Workplace: Department of Electronic Commerce, Viet nam University of Commerce - Position: Head of Department of Electronic Commerce Principles 2. Major research directions: - Electronic Commerce Models. - Mobile commerce and its applications, such as: mobile marketing, mobile banking, mobile ticketing, mobile retailing... - Social media marketing and development for electronic brands of websites. - Search engines optimization and data mining on the web. 3. Publications the author has published his works: - Trade Science Review - Journal of Economic Developmen - Business Review