Martin Ruda, Managing Director, TALL Group of Companies, considers how customer payments are changing amid the pandemic crisis

The COVID-19 crisis has made life very different for many people, organisations and regions alike. The simplest of tasks have become protracted and complex as we all get used to operating in lockdown. Even as measures are being lifted, business processes continue under pressure as organisations struggle to come to terms with the new ’normal’.
Imagine creating a cheque payment run for loyal suppliers and service providers working through this period. With staff working from home, furloughed or even made redundant, just writing a few cheques can become a major task. Having infilled the cheque, it needs the signatures of authorised personnel who could be off site, working from home or simply unavailable resulting in delays and possibly missed payments incurring unnecessary additional costs.

Now imagine a secure service where you simply send the required cheque details; payee, date, and amount to be paid, and a cheque is securely printed and distributed on your behalf. A cheque that can be personalised to maintain brand identity, be pre-signed and even mailed to your payee! Just think about the time saved, the processes simplified and additional overheads avoided.

As a ‘key industry supplier’, the TALL Group of Companies has been working throughout the lockdown period supplying vital banking documents to organisations, large and small. During that time, TALL recognised the pain that some of its clients were experiencing through feedback and regular communication regarding payments. Martin Ruda, Group Managing Director said, “As we speak to more businesses, we see that our evolving Payments as a Service (PaaS) propositions can help in these unprecedented times to relieve pressure on stretched organisations.”

“For example, our recently launched Send-A-Cheque™ service takes away the stress of making regular or ad hoc payments. From just a few (as few as one) to hundreds of cheques, TALL acts as that ‘extra-pair-of-hands’ by securely creating and distributing cheques on customers behalf with a very simple, easy-to-set-up service open to all bona-fide bank customers.”

The successful launch of Send-A-Cheque™ enables TALL to offer this service, not only in the UK but also worldwide, in countries where cheques can be sent for local clearing. TALL already prints cheques for many overseas banks in Europe, the Middle East and Africa and is experienced in meeting local standards and regulations for these. TALL is also able to produce cheques for other countries such as Canada, USA, Singapore and Japan to name a few.

“Our security print expertise gained over nearly thirty years supplying secure documents, means that wherever we can assist customers to overcome current COVID-19 pressures, we will do so, whether at home or abroad, relying on the ‘good old dependable cheque’ when the name and address of the payee is all that is known of the recipient!”