Paymaster Business Development & Client Services manager Danielle Henry (right) makes a point during yesterday's press conference where Paymaster founder and CEO Audrey Marks (2nd left) signed bill-collection contracts with Telstar Managing Director Florence Darby (left) and Hawkeye Electronic Security Managing Director Derrick Mahfood (2nd right). The press conference was held at the Jamaica Pegasus Hotel in New Kingston (Photo: Lionel Rookwood)

Paymaster Jamaica yesterday signed bill-collection agreements with Kingston-based firms Telstar Cable and Hawkeye Electronic Security.

The deals come on the heels of last week's signing of a similar arrangement between Paymaster and insurance giant Life of Jamaica, and is part of the multi-payment service company's overall strategy to aggressively increase market share and boost customer transactions to over one million per month.

According to Paymaster founder and CEO Audrey Marks, a critical component of the strategy is the diversifying of the company's revenue stream, which has been heavily dominated by utility payments.

"Our primary focus is now to expand our client base as we enter new industries," Marks said at a press conference at the Jamaica Pegasus Hotel in New Kingston where she signed the Telstar and Hawkeye deals. "Traditionally, we have been known as the bill payment company for utilities, (but) we know that there is a tremendous market out there in insurance, securities, cable, taxes, etc.

"At Paymaster we believe that we have established a foundation - there are 1.4 million people paying utility bills - and it is a good foundation for which we can offer all the other payment facilities," added Marks. "The premise of our business is to make ourselves the one-stop place for bills payment... persons can (now) go to one location and pay up to 50 different types of bills instead of going to 50 different places."

Telstar managing director Florence Darby said that as the cable company grows, it was imperative that it utilised the multiple payment options provided by Paymaster in order to boost customer satisfaction.

"As Telstar continues to improve delivery of services, we are constantly looking for new ways to improve efficiencies and heighten customer satisfaction," said Darby, who refused to disclose Telstar's customer numbers. "This partnership assists us to achieve these objectives, as our customers now have the benefit of using Paymaster's extensive payment network."

Telstar operates in 10 cable zones in Kingston and St Andrew, and according to Darby, recently acquired a cable company in Clarendon. She declined, however, to name the company.

Hawkeye Managing Director Mahfood, who, like Darby, declined to disclose his company's customer base, also pointed to the enhancement of customer service as the primary objective behind the deal.

"As part of our effort to improve on serving our customers in a competitive business environment, we see this new arrangement with Paymaster as a step in making bill payment that much easier by allowing our customers the benefit of paying their bills at any of over 150 Paymaster locations islandwide," said Mahfood.

Paymaster has 150 locations islandwide, and has over 50 client companies on whose behalf it collects payments. The company, which controls over 70 per cent of the bill payment industry, last year signed a landmark outsourcing agreement with JPS to take over bill payments at the light and power company's 16 locations islandwide.

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