Breaking Through The Noise: A Seamless Customer Experience is Key to Success

Processing payments is complicated. It’s even more so with outdated and disconnected software vendors and processes, keeping payment data fragmented and prolonging the challenge to incorporate, offer, and support new payment options seamlessly. The outcome is that businesses struggle to update payment offerings and, alternatively, are faced with skyrocketing costs in an effort to manage existing infrastructure and data. 

The industry appears to have responded in three ways: 

1. Payment technology companies are being acquired by the payment giants, creating the illusion of modern offerings backed by heightened support. However, to take full advantage of a processor’s offerings, it usually requires merchants to integrate across multiple platforms, creating a dizzying array of data and compliance requirements that are inflexible, overly complicated and not customer-oriented. 

2. The prevalence of new point-solutions is increasing with the allure of no-code offerings and payment orchestration as a solution to legacy challenges. However, point-solutions do not solve the underlying issue of managing the rising payment costs associated with data, timing, and interchange pricing. 

3. Payment Facilitators (PF) have emerged on the scene as branded payment options to create a seamless experience. Although providing a level of transparency to allow merchants to track payments across the entirety of their lifecycle is crucial to a seamless customer experience, PFs are too far removed to manage expenses, ultimately forcing costs to spiral. 

It appears that merchants and software vendors are being forced to choose between the lesser of two (or three) evils. But it doesn’t have to be that way. 

Customer-first technology

Not all payment platforms are built with the customer in mind. While many enterprises are quick to assume it’s the loudest and biggest voices in the room to deliver on this mission, it’s usually the one with the most experience, irrespective of size, bringing technology and nimbleness to the market. A modern payments platform is often an advantage when processing payments, but only relying on the technology also comes with disadvantages. For example, you want to choose a payments platform with sophisticated technology and the capabilities to be flexible and customize solutions to meet the nuances of your independent organization and its specific business challenges. 

Today’s payment processors must lead with a customer-first strategy to create a seamless customer experience. Organizations need a payments partner that understands their business and allows them to adapt and modify their payments platform to meet their unique needs and challenges. Excellent customer service is no longer defined by 24/7 support but rather an expertise, coupled with innovative technology that is flexible and can be adapted to solve complex problems. 

A payments partner that understands the specific nuances of a business is different from a one-size-fits-all SaaS solution. Many players in the space offer a more generalized, universal solution, which may work for new organizations and infrastructure, but certainly not for all. For example, the energy and waste industries are known for using outdated processes, often cobbling together legacy solutions. Leaving them behind is not an option, so as they transition away from brick-and-mortar solutions, they must be met with a payments partner who understands their industry’s complexity and provides them with a solution that mirrors their business. Today’s excellent customer service means working with a partner that gets you where you need to be. 

A boutique approach with titan expertise 

To meet the challenges of today’s businesses requires a one-to-one customer service relationship afforded in a boutique environment but backed by a level of expertise familiar to the industry titans. The customer’s needs must be at the forefront of all decisions. As new fintech darlings emerge in the space at a near-record pace, one more overzealous than the next, it’s imperative to choose a trusted payments partner that understands the breadth of the industry while recognizing the individual and specific needs of any one given merchant.  

When selecting a payments provider that prioritizes customer service, be sure they’re equipped with a fully-staffed team of experts to support at every step of the payments process. Customer service goes far beyond the digital bots on a company webpage. Excellent customer service is one that is seamless and fully integrated to meet the needs of the business being serviced. It starts with the technology and is nurtured by the human partner behind the screen, taking a personal approach to the organization’s business. Providing a human touch is significant for businesses with limited understanding or insight into the payment process, and being met by a team that provides support at every step - with a high degree of urgency - makes all the difference. 

Platforms built with the customer at the forefront, is a key differentiator between success and failure: taking the time to understand a customer’s payment processes from beginning to end; recognizing not just the surface level issues that can be easily solved, but the overarching goals of every customer and what they are trying to accomplish. Merchants deserve the same customer support from a payments partner that they provide to their own customers.