One of the most effective ways to increase revenue is by improving your payment experience. Here are five ways the payment experience grows your bottom line and how to increase your profits with a frictionless customer-oriented payment experience.
Are you looking for new ways to increase your revenue this year? Before investigating expanding your services, reaching new audiences, or increasing rates, don’t overlook the all-important payment experience. This frequent interaction with your existing customers is a simple and effective way to grow your bottom line.
According to a recent report by Pricewaterhouse Coopers (PwC), nearly three-fourths (73%) of consumers weigh the quality of their customer experience when making purchasing decisions. Not only is the customer experience more important than ever, but how customers feel about the payment experience affects your revenue as well.
Why the Payment Experience Matters
Payments are personal transactions. Regardless of the services or products you provide, consumers are trading their hard-earned money for your business’s offering. In an economic climate like today, these decisions are weighed even more carefully by consumers, and they are much more likely to spend more, spend regularly, and feel more positive about your brand when they are rewarded with a satisfying payment experience.
Processing payments is one of the most frequent engagements you have with your customer. The less friction, the higher their satisfaction.
Because of the frequency of the payment experience, these regular interactions tend to amplify whatever preexisting sentiments customers may have. With a positive payment experience, customer satisfaction and brand loyalty are exponentially increased. Likewise, a negative payment experience (with a frequent reminder of all it may be lacking) quickly dissolves any positive customer sentiments and may have your customer looking for new alternatives.
A rewarding payment experience creates satisfied customers who have no need to look elsewhere for the services or products your company offers.
5 Ways the Payment Experience Increases Revenue
Higher customer retention, increased customer loyalty, and decreased costs of acquisition and customer service can all be attributed to a rewarding payment experience.
Here are five different ways the payment experience grows your bottom line:
1. Increased Sales Volume
Customers with a positive brand experience spend an average of 140% more than customers with a negative experience (Deloitte). This measurable difference in the value of a quality customer experience highlights the importance of your regular payment interactions with customers.
When customers consistently have a positive payment experience, they are willing to purchase more of your existing goods and services, as well as try your latest products. Each of these purchases and regular payments brings in more revenue for your business.
To increase your current sales volume, look to the payment experience you’re providing first. Is it simple, convenient, and rewarding? Are you providing your customers with versatile payment solutions that meet their needs?
In analyzing your current payment experience, keep your customer’s perspective top of mind. This will help you find new ways to meet their needs and provide the ease, convenience, and personalization that will make their experience rewarding.
2. Higher Return Rates
In addition to spending more with your organization, customers are more likely to return to your business when they’ve had a positive experience.
When a higher percentage of customers continue to return to your business for your goods and services, the return on your initial acquisition investment increases. Now your organization can focus on retention and expansion while keeping your core customer base. All of this is made possible by an improved payment experience.
By focusing on the customer experience, and specifically the payment experience, you build customer trust and loyalty that will reward you with greater sales, greater returns on customer acquisitions, and an avid customer base who is eager to spend more with your company and increase your revenue even more.
Focus on creating a payment experience that eliminates the decision-making process for your customers. A frictionless and rewarding experience will keep customers returning solely to your company for your goods and services.
3. Lower Customer Service Costs
Technology, automation, and tools like conversational IVR can help you streamline your customer services and decrease expenses, but the most effective way to lower customer service costs is to decrease customer inquiries. With a simple and frictionless payment experience in place, you decrease the amount of customer service inquiries received: lightening the load on your customer service team and providing faster service to those who still need help.
To create a payment experience that meets the diverse needs of your customers, offer multiple ways to make a payment. For a younger customer base, they may look for mobile and online solutions that don’t require speaking to a customer service agent. For more traditional industries, lockbox services and eLockbox services, and conversational IVR assistance for phone payments may be most useful to your customers.
Reducing friction and providing simple payment solutions for your customers will, in turn, reduce costs associated with customer service inquiries that could easily be avoided. This reduction in expense adds more to your bottom line and brings more value to your customers throughout the payment experience.
4. Lower Customer Retention Costs
Your best customer is your existing customer. With a rewarding payment experience, your customer has no need to look elsewhere for the same or similar services. In fact, there is simply no reason for the thought to even enter their mind when you’ve provided consistent ease and convenience for them to move quickly through the payment process and receive the positive benefits of your goods and services.
Oftentimes, organizations look to invest in customer loyalty or rewards programs to improve customer retention but adding another point of interaction, another system for customers to understand, and another customer experience when your existing structures need improvement is a sunk cost.
Think first of how you’re already interacting with your customers on a regular basis. Most likely, your most common interaction is through the payment process. Focus on improving the payment experience first, and you may find it less necessary to invest in outside programs to improve customer retention.
By providing a quality and consistent experience, customer retention rates increase while the cost of retaining those customers decreases without any additional efforts to entice them to stay with your organization.
5. Lower Customer Acquisition Costs
Loyal customers make excellent brand ambassadors—proving the timeless effectiveness of word-of-mouth marketing. After all, who can best speak to the quality of your customer experience than the customer themself?
An effective payment experience that puts the customer first is one of the best marketing tactics you have to attract new customers. Combine this with a simple way for customers to refer friends or family, and your organization has access to a network of warm leads that easily convert into more loyal customers.
To lower your customer acquisition costs, look to your payment experience. Are there common payment questions that arise in your customer service queues? Address these first, then find new ways to make the payment process easier, faster, and more convenient for your customers.
How to Create a Frictionless Payment Experience
These revenue-expanding benefits of a rewarding payment experience all come down to reducing friction in the payment process. To do this, we look at ways to leverage technology and security to keep the customer top of mind and bring ease, convenience, and personalization to the payment experience.
Here’s how FirsTech can help you craft a frictionless payment experience for your customers:
1. Build a Rewarding Customer Experience
Improving your customer experience is the first step to creating a frictionless payment experience. As your customers interact with your brand, they are creating a mental imprint of whether your company solves their problem effectively, how simple and intuitive you make their experience, and if they can rely on you for a consistent and positive customer experience. These mental notes can greatly influence how they view and interact with the payment process you have in place.
Focus on usability, convenience, personalization, and accessibility to create a comprehensive customer experience that makes every customer feel cared for. With these elements as the foundation of your customer experience and with your payment experience following suit, you’ll be well on your way to seeing the results of your efforts in your bottom line.
2. Utilize the Latest Payment Technologies
By employing the latest payment technologies in your payment experience, you’re not only staying ahead of the competition but giving your customers more convenient and accessible solutions.
When making a payment, the modern consumer is looking for ease of access, convenience (making payments on their own schedule), and payment solutions that work seamlessly with the technologies they use every day.
At FirsTech, we are committed to providing the latest payment technologies to meet your customer’s needs and grow your revenue. We offer solutions such as Mobile Payments, Conversational IVR, or Electronic Payments that each increase accessibility and provide another secure avenue for your customers to make a payment.
To explore more ways to advance your payment technologies, contact us today.
3. Provide Versatile Payment Solutions
You know your customers better than anyone else. That’s why FirsTech offers customized payment solutions so you can get the services you need now and have the flexibility to add the services you need in the future.
Customers today have diverse needs when it comes to navigating the customer payment experience. Some need on-the-go solutions that they can manage without the help of a customer service agent. Others prefer more personalized experiences that might come through notifications on their mobile devices. Yet others prefer the personal approach of speaking to a live agent in person or over the phone.
Providing a rewarding payment experience isn’t a one-size-fits-all solution. At FirsTech, we’ll work with you to understand your business’s unique needs and craft a unique solution to meet those needs.
With a robust and versatile payment offering for your customers, you can create a rewarding payment experience overall.
4. Emphasize Security
Security is essential to the modern customer. To maintain your customer’s trust, your organization needs secure payment solutions that protect their personal and financial data. No matter how rewarding a payment experience is on the front end, a data breach or compromised financial information is a sure way to lose your customer’s trust.
Since its inception, FirsTech has been dedicated to providing secure payment solutions for businesses and organizations of all sizes. Our security standards and compliance qualifications are regularly maintained and audited, allowing us to be long-time providers in high-security industries such as financial services, healthcare, insurance, and municipalities.
A compromised payment experience is a costly one. To protect your bottom line and give your customers the security they deserve, partner with a payment provider you can trust.
Grow Your Bottom Line with FirsTech
FirsTech has been a leading provider of payment processing solutions for nearly forty years. Our emphasis on technology and security provides peace of mind for organizations and businesses of all sizes. In short, we keep your data and your customer’s data safe by utilizing the latest technology.
As your payment partner, we are invested and committed to your success and to your customer’s experience. You’ll find a comprehensive offering of payment services that can be tailored to fit your needs now and scaled to fit your needs in the future. Working together, we’ll craft a custom payment experience that rewards your customers and grows your bottom line.
For the most secure, technologically advanced, and rewarding payment experience, partner with FirsTech.
To get started, connect with a payment specialist today.