The boom in e-Commerce over the past year has led to AI and machine learning quickly paving the way towards automated and personalized experiences. Combined with frictionless payment processes becoming the gold standard for consumers, businesses have the opportunity to optimize their payment processes to ensure a great customer experience throughout their journey at every step of the way.
ISVs can rise to this challenge by encouraging their merchants to reassess their payment processes to find opportunities to offer the best customer experience. Here’s how ISVs can enhance their merchants’ customer experience strategy through payments.
Automate Payment Invoices
An effective way to increase customer engagement is to meet customers where they are. Following up a service with a payment request shouldn’t be a dreadful, drawn-out experience for merchants.
Instead of sending paper invoices through the mail and hoping for a quick turnaround in payment, ISVs can offer a feature that not only automates this task but gets their merchants paid faster in the process.
ISVs can integrate our Customer Statements feature, which enables merchants to send payment requests via text message. This solution is a win-win for both merchants and customers, as they are sending the payment request to a space that their customers are most likely to interact with - the messaging app on their mobile phone. Alternatively, merchants can send email notifications, another effective way to reach customers directly.
When customers open the text message and click on the payment link, it leads them to a secure site that allows them to make a payment electronically without creating a login and password.
This frictionless payment experience shows customers how easy it is to transact with the business. Meanwhile, companies receive payments faster without having to manually send follow-up mailers or making additional phone calls. Instead, they can rely on our solution to send automatic system reminders on a configurable schedule to customers with unpaid balances. Win-win.
Accept Payments Within Online Booking
For ISVs that work with businesses that require deposits before providing a product or service, collecting payments and reducing no-shows are essential in maintaining efficient operations.
One way to enable merchants to collect payments successfully is to optimize their online appointment booking. With our Online Appointment Booking & Deposits tool, merchants will have an interactive online scheduler that can collect deposits before confirming appointments. The scheduler link can be put on their owned marketing channels such as their website, social media pages, text messages, and emails, increasing the number of opportunities to get bookings and partial payments.
Having an online scheduling platform available to customers is beneficial for them, as it encourages them to schedule appointments at their convenience from their preferred device. They can follow through with their intent to move forward with the meeting and submit initial deposits to confirm their spot unassisted and without taking time away from support staff.
In the end, this helps businesses set appointments at any time (especially outside office hours), reduce no-shows, and increase cash flows.
Turn Payments Into A Personalization Tool
If businesses could see relevant customer details on their phone screen or computer as their customer calls, imagine the possibilities! Our enhanced communications solution gives support staff the tools needed to have successful customer interactions.
Think of it as a “cheat sheet” for the customer relationship. Businesses can know who is calling, the deals and offers customers have used in the past, any outstanding balances, upcoming appointments, and more. Staff members can respond appropriately and make the most of the conversation in real-time.
Additionally, merchants can follow up phone conversations with text messaging by sending appointment reminders and payment links, and online review requests. It also facilitates two-way texting, allowing merchants to maintain relationships by responding to follow-up questions, requests, and customer feedback.
Here’s how we make it easier to communicate with customers:
Look To Payment Analytics For Customer Experience Optimization
When merchants take the time to know their customers, they can confidently provide the best product and customer experience. Payment data may not be the first data point that comes to mind when looking for customer experience metrics, but it can prove useful.
For example, credit card data paired with customer purchasing habits can paint a better picture of what customers are looking for, in turn, giving merchants insights on how to improve their customer experience and product.
ISV partners can choose to offer our Analytics & Reputation Management tool as a value-add to their merchants. The web-based application provides payment processing data on new and returning customers, total visits, sales volume, and average tickets. From these data points, merchants can view customer loyalty and retention trends while also measuring their marketing campaigns’ effectiveness.
Additionally, the application provides visibility into the merchant’s social reputation, allowing them to view online reviews across all of their social media platforms and monitor their competitors to see where their customer support can improve.
Commerce Enablement Products In Practice
While all of the above sounds great in theory, how can these products work together in practice? Here’s an example of how Global Payments Integrated’s commerce enablement solutions can be applicable for medical-focused ISVs:
Conclusion
ISVs become more valuable when they integrate a payment solution that goes beyond processing transactions. From improved customer experiences to secure transaction processing and the latest technology, contact us to learn how our ecosystem platform can effectively transform your merchants’ payment strategy.
Michelle Mondonedo
Brand Marketing Manager
