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In a Nutshell: Businesses of all sizes can benefit from solutions that enable them to operate more efficiently. PDCflow offers configurable products to help its customers streamline their payment and communication processes. The company values customer feedback and provides robust support and training to clients. CardRates is recognizing PDCflow with our Editor’s Choice™ Award for its innovative payment and communication solutions.
Businesses that can securely expedite payment and communication workflows stand to increase efficiency and their ability to comply with regulations within their industries.
Enhancing the speed of business processes also allows companies to spend more time innovating and serving their customers.
PDCflow has been a trusted partner providing secure payment and communication services to businesses for more than two decades. The company started in 2003 with a focus on payment card industry (PCI) compliance.
As PDCflow has grown, it has evolved to provide efficient and compliant payment delivery services for businesses and consumers. The company offers secure, configurable, and affordable payment infrastructure to several industries.
We caught up with Kristen Makanoa, PDCflow’s Product Manager, to learn more about the company’s solutions and how it helps businesses increase productivity. Makanoa said PDCflow is a privately owned business that intends to stay that way.
Makanoa manages a small and agile development team alongside all the company’s products and services. Her responsibilities include meeting with internal stakeholders and determining the business’s course of action.
PDCflow works with businesses operating in heavily regulated industries. The company’s clients include businesses in the debt collection, finance, and healthcare spaces.
“We started in payments and grew into providing communication services too,” Makanoa said. “That’s really one of the things that makes PDCflow unique and a good choice for businesses. Our clients need to automate and standardize their communication and payment workflows.”
PDCflow provides solutions to businesses of all sizes.
“The customers that we’re a really good fit for tend to be growing small and medium-sized businesses that have outgrown manual review for compliance and regulation efforts,” Makanoa said.
PDCflow also provides services to enterprise clients that manage payments and document-intensive workflows.
Helping Businesses Manage Workflows
PDCflow uses Flow Technology to increase the speed of its customers’ business processes. Makanoa said Flow Technology is the ability to send communications asking for essential items, including payments, e-signatures, document reviews, and personal or sensitive information.
PDCflow’s customers can use Flow Technology to send outbound requests, or Flows.
“Customers can use Flow Technology to request e-signatures very easily,” Makanoa said. “Once they do that, they have access to a toolbox of different things they can use to create flow templates.”
Makanoa said Flow Technology draws businesses to engage with PDCflow.
“One of my favorite Flows is sending a document without having to do any work like you have to do in other platforms where you overlay elements,” Makanoa said. “We provide the option to just send a document and add a simple signature to the end of it that confirms its approval.”
Businesses that initiate communications using PDCflow’s Flow Technology aren’t the only entities that benefit from the tool.
“Flow Technology makes it super easy and efficient for both the document’s sender and its recipients,” Makanoa said.
Businesses can configure flow templates to combine numerous transactions into a single workflow. Some of PDCflow’s customers use one flow template. Other clients employ dozens, depending on the needs of their businesses.
PDCflow facilitates complex document-access permissions, which are essential for enterprise-level customers who need to segment access to data based on multiple organizational levels.
Makanoa said PDCflow can manage the robust data-permission needs of businesses of all sizes.
Companies that use templated outgoing communications through PDCflow’s Flow Technology can minimize the errors that can occur when employees perform manual data entry or type individual communications.
Streamlining Payment Requests Can Enhance Cash Flow
PDCflow’s solutions can help a business improve its cash flow. The company enables businesses to send payment requests to their customers via email or text message so the customer can enter their payment details and complete the request on their smartphone.
PDCflow removes the burden of PCI compliance from its customers.
“Any time you can outsource PCI compliance to a vendor, it makes it so much easier for you as a business to go through the annual compliance paperwork needed just to be able to take payments,” Makanoa said.
Businesses can reduce the scope of their PCI compliance efforts by having their employees avoid accessing sensitive payment information, healthcare-related data, and other personally identifiable information.
Debt collection agencies must adhere to compliance standards to operate lawfully. PDCflow can customize a debt collector’s communications so other parties can’t edit them.
“Our ability to customize a debt collector’s communications is key,” Makanoa said. “Someone such as a lawyer or compliance manager can carefully set up the debt collector’s communications and lock things down so the documents can only be edited by certain parties.”
Makanoa said one of PDCflow’s customers in the debt collection industry uses the company’s Flow Technology to upload records in bulk.
The customer can import thousands of records containing sensitive data at once and send personalized requests to acquire the additional information it needs.
“That process used to require multiple employees to be taken care of quickly, but our solutions allow for one employee to manage the entire process themselves,” Makanoa said.
PDCflow measures its success through its ability to retain customers and attract new business. Makanoa said one of the critical metrics she tracks is product usage, which enables her to assess whether customers find PDCflow’s payment and communication solutions useful.
Supporting Customers Through Onboarding and Training
PDCflow values hearing from its customers about product improvements they desire. The company obtains customer feedback from multiple sources, including direct customer interviews concerning current and future product enhancements.
PDCflow employs anonymous and attributed surveys to gain feedback on pain points customers experience while using the company’s solutions. Makanoa said most customers share positive comments about their interactions with PDCflow’s representatives.
“A lot of the surveys and support feedback we receive raves about our support team,” Makanoa said. “They’re just so attentive and responsive. Our customers really appreciate their help.”
PDCflow’s customer support extends beyond the company’s designated support team.
“We’re really a customer-centric organization,” Makanoa explained. “We all care about making sure we’re doing the best we can for our customers and building products that help them get paid and meet the needs of their businesses.”
PDCflow provides options to assist customers in onboarding. Makanoa said new customers can receive personalized training from the company’s support team, who can also help them configure the solutions they purchase.
PDCflow offers a self-enrollment process that allows customers to sign up for services online and establish their accounts. Interested businesses can request a product demo to learn more about the company’s tools.
“Customers don’t have to go through our training process if they prefer to learn on their own by using the products,” Makanoa said. “But some folks don’t want to figure things out themselves. We’re here for them and can give them as much customized training and support as they need.”
As she considers the company’s future, Makanoa said PDCflow is committed to continuously improving its products and services to extend additional value to its customers.
“We’re currently looking for ways to make it easier for our customers to manage their customers,” she said. “Our goal is to make that process more efficient for businesses than any other platform available on the market can.”