In a FinTech-driven ecosystem, there’s no shortage of solutions that companies can implement to appease customers along every point of their buying journey. Today, this trend can be observed in the development and innovation of integrated payments.
At their core, integrated payment solutions serve as tools businesses use to seamlessly onboard accounting/payments, better customer relationship management systems (CRM), and business applications that power dynamic payment processing solutions. Before recent technology innovations began to shape business payment practices, most of these tools were thought about in isolation, which created silos among company divisions.
That was the past. Today, with every company from startups to corporations vying for better ways retain and attract new customers, boost revenue streams and scale their solutions, it’s easy to see why companies have embraced a new way of thinking. Integrated payments has taken the guess work out of how businesses should interact with their customers, integrate new applications, and select a payment solution that will streamline the process for every party involved.
Integrated Payments Boost Customer Loyalty
When thinking about which solutions to onboard into your business, company decision makers must consider how each of them impact the end-user, regardless of what product or service you’re marketing.
Today, customer service can make or break a business relationship. Thanks to technology, delivering a top-notch customer experience is about more than just communication. It’s about having the right combination of tech, enhanced security measures, and diverse payment methods to deliver the kind of experience your customers desire.
The biggest way to reduce customer churn and boost loyalty? Create solutions and integrate tools that power the processes your customers want — instead of forcing your customers to adapt their needs to what your business offers.
Having the ability to seamlessly integrate new solutions (through the use of APIs, for example) as they get launched into the marketplace — particularly new payments and payments processing offerings — is one sure way your business can better connect to your customers. Before FinTech, the app economy and online/mobile commerce became driving trends, businesses were solely focused on driving the bottom line by selling more and acquiring new customers. The problem with that mentality is it’s too easy to overlook what actually contributes to those two factors.
While selling and marketing your products and services are key to acquiring new customers, what really helps businesses scale and develop sustainable strategies, is the ability to customize your payment processing solutions to match the needs of both your business and your customers. That truly matters when it comes to loyalty.
Added Benefits of Integrated Payments (Future-Proofing Your Business)
Customers today expect personalized interactions. To empower a truly integrated payments experience, that means having enough tools in your developer’s toolbox to enable faster, better and more secure payment processing. All of this is possible though an integrated payments approach.
Beyond the customer experience, any company can leverage the power of integrated payments to consolidate how time and resources are executed. Because integrated payments enable your business to focus on more important tasks (like keeping customers happy), you can worry less about the logistics of collecting payments. This is particularly relevant for recurring payments that require regularly retrieving credit and debit card info updates.
In the year 2017 there are plenty of automated processes and technologies that settle and reconcile payments in ways that give businesses more visibility and control over how and when to process payments — through whatever method fits the bill. This, in turn, can enhance cash flow, and provide better insights into what products and services are being utilized by your top customers, regardless of which channel they are using.
Not only can integrated payments save money, time and resources by eliminating manual data entry tasks, it can also help reduce errors in payment processing. Because manually reconciling payments increases the chance of error — which can lead to customer churn — relying on integrated payment solutions helps you better manage your customer interactions (and payments between them).
The best way to achieve that? Eliminate silos from your business practiced by having a more comprehensive view of your business.
Integrated payment solutions can create better synergies for your business as it looks to develop new revenue streams, but you have to understand the benefits and how to fully leverage them. From there, you can focus your team’s efforts on boosting customer loyalty by offering them the payments, products and services that future-proof your business for types of solutions that are driving today and tomorrow’s trends.
