How to take payment processing and customer experience to the next level

When you think of the solutions your clients need to provide stellar customer service, payment acceptance and processing tools may not be at the top of the list. But – believe it or not – they have the power to make or break a customer's experience. That's why it's so important to incorporate the right tools into your software solution.

It’s no secret that providing good customer experience is vital for your clients. But what does that mean for you? By helping improve the experience your clients offer, you’re bound to have a stickier portfolio as a software provider. When you integrate payment tools that go beyond simply processing transactions, you can impact your clients in two very big ways: making their lives easier and making them more money.

The best part — you can seamlessly deliver all that functionality in one powerful, integrated system. So how does it all come together?

Combine customer experience and payment tools with Genius Your Way

You may already be familiar with Genius, our semi-integrated, cloud-based payment solution. Genius combines payment processing and customer experience to deliver best-in-class checkout on a wide range of devices.

Today, we want to introduce you to Genius Your Way: a collection of API controls that software providers can use to customize how a Genius payment device interacts with customers. Rooted in payment technology, this innovative functionality helps your clients best serve their customers by gathering customer data and creating exceptional service.

Let’s dive into the many possibilities that come with Genius Your Way, including:

• Customer engagement screens
• Improved signature and agreement processes
• Customer input functionality
• World-class checkout

Boost promotion participation with splash screens

During checkout, customers are not only interacting with the business' staff, but also the payment device itself. Before a transaction even begins, there's an opportunity for your clients to build their brand and offer promotions.

With Genius Your Way, you can customize the introductory splash screen seen on a device while it waits for a transaction to start.
Here are just a few ways different businesses can take advantage of those precious few seconds of customers' attention:

Splash screens are a great way to engage with patients or customers, but if your clients don’t like the idea of asking for a review immediately after a visit or purchase, there are other options. Certain communication solutions give your clients the ability to automatically send a text message that requests a review and sends customers a link. It’s super easy — and it’s a convenient way to gather feedback to create better customer experiences in the future.

Improve the signature and agreements processes

While those splash screens are a great way to give your marketing efforts a boost, the most important part of checkout is making sure the process runs smoothly — especially when a signature is required. With Genius Your Way, your clients can unlock a better signature and agreement process.

Genius Your Way gives your clients the option to request a customer’s digital signature and store it securely inside the point of sale system. It’s easy — they simply prompt the device to capture a signature and apply it to receipts and other critical documents in minutes. This feature is ideal for any organization or business that frequently needs customers to sign policies, order forms and more — like pharmacies, medical offices and rental companies.

Merchants can also display one or more questions or policies with Accept or Decline button options. This functionality is valuable for collecting consumer agreement to medical disclosures, rental policies and more. This Genius Your Way feature can also allow for simple fields or checkboxes, or multiple-page options, like contracts or service agreements that require several acknowledgments.

These solutions greatly improve upon and speed up the traditional paper methods of collecting signatures, making them perfect for:

• Receipts
• Lease agreements
• Service contracts
• Release forms
• Waivers
• Credit applications

Drive customer input to help clients gather data

Customer data is more powerful than ever — in fact, data-driven businesses are 23 times more likely to get new customers. But your clients may feel overwhelmed by the responsibility of securely and efficiently collecting customer data. That’s where Genius Your Way comes in.

Genius Your Way allows your clients to customize screens that prompt customers to submit personal data using the number pad on the payment device. For instance, a retail customer can be prompted to enter a birthdate for special promotions, or a medical patient can securely enter a social security number during check-in.

Genius Your Way also enables merchants to create custom questions with multiple answers, including the flexibility for consumers to select more than one. This could be used for customer surveys or to collect other data. For example, some pharmacies use this to record who is picking up a prescription, while some retail stores use it to enroll shoppers in a loyalty program.

Customer experience tech doesn’t always start with the customer itself — sometimes data about staff can actually improve the experience for customers in the long run. Say you run a restaurant with a popular patio area that sees significant peaks and valleys in patronage depending on the season. Analytics solutions can help determine the busiest times of year or even times of day, so your clients can staff the place accordingly and provide a better experience for patrons.

When you offer these simple, effective customer intelligence tools and analytics, you can help small businesses gather customer data and personalize the customer experience without feeling overwhelmed. Plus, you can easily incorporate these tools into your offering: no need to source additional customer intelligence solutions, because they’re built directly into the point of sale.

Offer consumers best-in-class checkout

As payment technology evolves, so do customer expectations. Your clients need fast, easy and secure payment processing with innovative payment devices and future-proof solutions that can grow with their business.

The customization that comes with Genius Your Way is the cherry on top — when your clients use the Genius semi-integrated solution and family of devices, they’re already delivering the ultimate checkout experience to their customers. Here’s what they can expect:

• The ability to accept all payments types, including chip cards, EMV® contactless payments, gift cards, digital wallets and more
• Countertop, wireless and mobile payment devices with flexible connectivity options
• Security you can count on with tokenization, point-to-point encryption and PCI 5.X certification

The sleek, industry-leading quality of these devices means that customers will experience a smooth, speedy checkout, and merchants can process more transactions each day. And with the variety of secure ways to pay, your clients should never need to turn away a customer for their preferred payment method.

Help clients build the best customer experience

With all the various options that Genius Your Way offers your clients, the gains can be significant. These custom controls help businesses and organizations of all industries and sizes to collect data, capture feedback and ultimately transform the customer experience.

But customer experience tech doesn’t end there. Our additional digital solutions, when coupled with Genius Your Way, can deliver a powerful, industry-leading consumer engagement platform. So, when you put it all together, what can your clients expect?

Payments from anywhere at any time

It’s simple: customers crave convenience. A growing number of consumers want to pay their bills through mobile and online channels, and it’s safe to say that all customers want options when it comes to payment methods. You can help boost your clients’ customer satisfaction (and maybe even get them paid on time more often) by enabling many different payment methods through your software, such as:

• Online transactions through a secure portal
• Recurring payments that are completed automatically
• Payments accepted via a link sent over text or email

More efficient operations

If a business or organization runs efficiently, customers take notice. A great example? When a medical practice adds digital channels for check-in, it not only saves time for front-line staff but also speeds up the process for patients — a win-win.

Let’s take that example a bit further. A patient checks in online the day before their checkup, which they booked online. Their personal details are uploaded to the system seamlessly without any manual input from staff. The morning of, a text message reminds the patient of their appointment time and also sends directions to the medical practice. Thanks to that helpful info, the patient arrives on time and is seen quickly by the medical staff. On their way out, they receive a digital payment request that they can submit easily online in seconds. And if they forget, another text message reminds them a few days later of their outstanding balance — with a link to take care of it on the spot.

All of that (save for the actual medical advice) can be done automatically without the time and energy of your client’s staff. With greater efficiency comes happier employees — and more satisfied patients.

Enhanced relationships and reputation management

While customers love smooth operations, it might take more for your clients’ businesses to truly stand out from their competition. Here’s where digital solutions can actually make good ol’ customer service come more easily.

Remember that customer whose birthday we captured through Genius Your Way? Your clients can honor their big day with an offer for 20% off sent via text. Maybe your client has received some so-so reviews lately. They can use a reputation management tool to respond thoughtfully to all of them in one place, helping them win those customers back. And when your client nabs an appointment with a new customer online, they can send a customized welcome message straight to their phone or email.

You might be inclined to think that digitizing the customer experience would make it feel cold or impersonal — but it’s in fact the opposite. With innovative ways of gathering data and tools that help do the work for them, your clients can add a special touch to every step in the customer journey.

Easier people management

Integrated people management solutions can also help your clients deliver a better experience by saving them time usually spent on tedious back-office HR tasks. By adding people management solutions to your tech stack, you can eradicate the need for your clients to manually perform tasks like time tracking, scheduling, tax management and more.

Not only will it save time, but it can also reduce costs. Research found that the average organization makes 15 corrections per payroll period. These mistakes can incur costly fines for your clients. It’s a huge reason HR is so stressful for many small business owners. By outsourcing people management, your clients can spend more time focused on customer relationships and on the growth of their business.

In the end, technology that enhances the customer experience can give your clients the competitive advantage they’ve been looking for — and set you apart from other providers.

Start incorporating the right tools in your offering today

The bottom line? Payment tools can do more than just process transactions. Thanks to customer data capture and world-class checkout from solutions like Genius Your Way, your clients can offer exceptional customer service. Plus, with the power of people management technology, they can save time and energy to focus on what’s most important — growing their business.

To learn more about Genius Your Way and our full suite of integrated solutions, contact the Global Payments Integrated team.

Disclaimer: EMV is a registered trademark or trademark of EMVCo LLC in the United States and other countries.