getting customers to pay by direct debit is brilliant.
i swtched all my customers over about 5 years ago now and it was one of my bst decisions. its a big job switching everyone over, but once you have commited to the decision the benefits are really big.
what i would recommend is insisting everyne of your domestic customers pays by DD (we accept bacs or cheque off commerical invocied customers). you have to do a staged transition. first is easy, just get setup and only accept new domestic customers if they pay by DD. dont accept anyone telling you they prefer to pay by cheque, cash, standing order, whatever...
second you start changing your current customers over. we sent out letters asking them to change, then followed them up with another letter reminding them, and another... then i started calling and door knocking the rest. i reckon about 30% will do it right away, 30% take hounding, 30% take door knocking, and the last 10% will only switch if you force them! in the end i closed my bank account and opened a new one so that people's standing orders no longer worked and they couldnt bacs money over either!!!
i have literally 4 domestic customers who still pay us by cheque now and the rest DD.
im just doing a price rise this month, and all i have to do is post all my cusomters a letter telling them their price is going up but they dont need to do anything.. My DD provider will put up all my customers prices to their new price overnight on an agreed date.
so simple.
good luck