The monthly, weekly or even annual bill is among the interactions a service provider is virtually guaranteed to have with a customer again and again. Yet consumers give the experience mediocre marks.

PYMNTS Intelligence’s “The Service Commerce Performance Gap,” produced in collaboration with Paymentus and published in September, surveyed 2,566 consumers in the United States and 240 senior billing decision-makers across automobile loans, healthcare and medical services, property and home insurance, and electricity and gas. Both groups were measured using the same 0-to-100 Service Commerce Performance Index, allowing provider perceptions to be compared with consumers’ experiences.

The results revealed gaps in how providers evaluate billing, how consumers want to pay and how the experience relates to customer retention.

The overall Service Commerce Performance Index score was 65 out of 100, and no industry earned better than the equivalent of a C. Relationship quality was the weakest of the index’s three pillars in every industry, averaging 62.

Across the report’s 28 combinations of seven billing stages and four industries, none earned the equivalent of a B. Payment execution performed best, suggesting providers did a better job processing payments than building the broader billing experience around them.

Only 5% to 6% of service providers rated themselves below ideal on core billing capabilities. Consumers reported shortcomings at two to three times those rates.

Only about 5% of service providers considered billing a major driver of loyalty.

Consumers assigned it a larger role, as 58% said their billing and payment experience affected how they judged a provider’s overall service quality.

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