Introduction

The world of payment processing is changing. Analog payments are being replaced by digital methods, Banking as a Service is delivering new merchant capabilities and customer’s expectations are higher than ever before through every aspect of their user experience, including the payment process.

These days, customers expect flexible and convenient methods of payment and businesses like yours are charged with the task of finding payment solutions that meet their modern needs while also growing the bottom line. 

The answer is to simplify your payment processing.

How to Simplify Your Payment Processing System

Looking at your payment processing system as a whole and trying to identify where to simplify can be overwhelming. Here are a few areas to make your organization’s payment system run more efficiently by simplifying your payment processing system.

• Streamline Your Payment Processing Providers

Using multiple payment providers to cover a range of payment options can be inefficient and costly. Initially, organizations use a standard cohesive processing system, but as new technologies are introduced and new needs are identified, solutions begin to be layered adding to an existing system.Over time, an organization’s payment processing system is a complex and costly interwoven quilt of providers with various fee structures and limited communication between platforms. 

By simplifying your payment processing to a single provider with the versatility to cover all your payment channels, you save time and money while still exceeding your customers expectations for payment options.

Choosing a payment partner like FirsTech provides you an omnichannel payment solution to better serve your customers, lowers your processing fees in total and saves time and resources by placing all your payment processing into one platform. 

The result is robust, efficient and cost-effective.

• Opt for Versatility

Simplifying your payment processing is not about minimizing your options.

The objective is to simplify the logistics of your payment processing without limiting the customer experience. In fact, you can create more streamlined processes while actually expanding your customer’s experience. 

Opting for versatility simplifies the payment process for your customers. With more options, they are no longer required to adjust their preferences to fit your limited payment services. Instead, you can customize the payment experience to meet their unique needs and  provide a complete payment solution.

This single adjustment enriches the customer experience and creates loyal champions of your businesses. By rewarding your customers with solutions that fit their needs, your business can further grow the customer relationship all the way through payment processing – by cultivating a rich customer experience you build loyalty to your brand.

One way to add versatility into your payment processing is to offer frictionless payment opportunities. Modern solutions include options like authorizing a payment by a simple text response. The net result, your business is seen as their partner, looking out for your customer, and providing an overall positive experience.

When you opt for versatility with a single-source provider like FirsTech, you simplify your payment processes, enrich your customer experience, free staff time for more strategic work, and save money – growing your bottom line. 

• Simplify with Integration

A payment solutions partner like FirsTech offers integrated reporting so you have immediate access to comprehensive payment data without any additional steps. 

This streamlined integration provides effective and efficient reporting.  Accurate reporting not only helps you better serve your customers but allows you to quickly analyze and respond to data –with the confidence a single data source provides. 

With this kind of informed insight, you can pivot quickly by spotting trends in the data in real-time and grow your business to the next level.

The Benefits of Simplifying Your Payment Processing

When you streamline your payment processing, the benefits expand beyond simplification and positively influence nearly every department of your organization.

• User Experience

Delivering a world-class user experience all the way through to your customers’ payment process can be a powerful force in their overall sentiment and loyalty. If customers see you as their partner providing a simple, reliable and intuitive payment process, they’ll view your business similarly. 

When you make it easier for your customers to pay you, they’ll pay you more consistently and with a deeper satisfaction.

• Omnichannel Solutions & Payment Platforms

Switching to an omnichannel payment platform offers your customer a solution for every way they want to pay. 

You no longer need to limit your options to fit your budget. Simplifying to a single payment provider decreases costs and reduces service fees so you can provide better solutions to your customers at a lower cost overall.

• Configurable Options

FirsTech’s omnichannel solutions not only provide versatile options to your customers, but also offer your organization a customized solution to fit your business needs.

Through APIs and cloud-based technology, you have the flexibility to configure the many service offerings to best fit your needs. 

Gone are the days of restricted packages and the compromises that followed. Now you can experience a customized payment solution that was designed exclusively for your business and easily adjust as the needs of your organization change.

• Security

The majority of businesses in the U.S. are not PCI compliant. Coupled with the increasing risk of payment fraud and cyberattacks on financial and personal data, security remains a tenet and top priority of FirsTech. 

FirsTech is not only PCI compliant and SSAE 18 certified, but they also operate as a wholly-owned subsidiary of Busey Bank. This means that they regularly undergo regulated compliance examinations far more than other payment providers who are not bank-owned. 

Simplified payment processing minimizes vulnerable points of exposure throughout the payment process so that your transactions are protected – a peace of mind you can also pass on to your customers.

FirsTech employs the latest technology to prevent fraud and protect financial data, keeping your funds, data and business protected.

• Integration

FirsTech’s omnichannel solutions bring additional integrated features to your reporting, settlement and reconciliation. 

Payment services can be directly integrated into your CRM or accounting software to save time and money, reduce errors and provide comprehensive consolidated data. 

From the many payment options now available to your customers, you’ll receive simplified reports that can be customized to your organization’s needs. Regardless of how a payment is made, it’s delivered with ease with all transaction records from all payment sources within one platform. 

These integrated features make interdepartmental communication easy, keep your customer-facing departments updated and eliminate reporting redundancies that can cause costly errors. 

Simplify with FirsTech

For nearly forty years, FirsTech has been partnering with customers across North America to build payment processes that leverage technology, provide security, and build exceptional customer experiences.  

While offering innovative solutions, they operate from a risk-averse and compliance-centric space that is regularly audited for compliance, allowing your business to operate in confidence.

FirsTech has numerous options available to simplify your payment processing and devise a custom solution for your organization. Get started by talking with a payment specialist today.