As modern payment technology continues to grow and evolve, areas to improve your business arise. Embrace new technology to ensure that your increasingly modern customers continue to visit. Modern customers expect easy payment processes and to feel secure when it comes to personal information and data. A bad payment experience could result in a loss of sale or a negative review. Avoid inconvenient and frustrating payment processes by implementing a payment system that will increase sales and enhance customer experience. The following 5 tips can help you to improve customer payment experience:
1. Give Options
Offering a range of payment options for your customers will allow them to pay in the most convenient way for them. Having a flexible and intuitive collection of payment choices is a great way to ensure sucessful sales. According to a report from ACI Worldwide and Ovum, 47% of organisations expect that investing in more and better payment options and capabilities will improve the customer experience. Consider what options you currently offer and which options you could introduce to support customer payments.
PAC: Pay at counter
Having a terminal set up at your sales counter to take payments is a standard procedure for pubs, cafes, bars, retail shops, some restaurants and more. Encouraging the customer to order and pay all in one quick process at the counter helps to keep the turnover times quick and efficient. Find out more about SPARK's Terminals by clicking the image above.
PAT: Pay at table
Products such as handheld devices, waiters assistants, and transportable PDQ units that are usually for restaurants can be utilised to create orders and put through transactions. From the comfort of their seats, customers will be attended to by staff who can take their order and payments. The customer can relax and dictate their experience with you, for example they can ask for the bill when it is most convenient to them. SPARK offer a range of handhelds - click the image above to find out more!
Self Ordering
Customers can utilise self ordering options that allow them to order and pay in their own time. This can be done online using their laptop, computer or phone. Self ordering is becoming increasingly popular, with large chains such as Wetherspoons creating downloadable phone apps to allow customers to order menu items to their tables. SPARK offer a self ordering software that allows businesses to sell food and drink online - no app downloads needed! Customers can access the platform via a web address, making it a quick, easy and efficient solution.
Kiosk
Self Ordering Kiosks have been rising in popularity over the last few years. An example being McDonalds kiosks that are set up in the venue to assist with the large amount of visiting customers. Using Kiosks in your business will help you speed up service times, increase efficiency and improve customer service. You will not have to hire as many staff if you have kiosks, allowing you to save money. Kiosks can include upsells that encourage customers to spend money, in-fact customers spend 30% more when using self ordering kiosks than when ordering traditionally! Check out SPARK Kiosks by clicking the image above...
Payment options
What other specific payment options should you be accepting? Here is a handy list to help you...
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Cash
Use a cash drawer to safely store and organise cash. Even though it is less likely that the modern customer will use cash to buy products nowadays, it is still important to have the option so that you do not miss out on any sales opportunities.
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Card
Use PDQ and NFC devices to take card transactions. UK Finance predicts that card-based spending will increase massively in the next 6 years, with 18.2 billion debit card payments.
Using NFC devices tends to be preferred by modern customers as it speeds up the purchasing process. The spending limit on contactless payments increased from £30 to £45 in April of this year in response to the Covid-19 pandemic. The change encouraged customers to use contactless payments as an alternative to chip and pin where customers would have had to touch the pin keypad. Cutting down on touch-points has been essential in the fight to prevent the spread of Coronavirus.
Predictions suggested that prior to Covid-19, cash would only be used for 10% of transactions by 2028. Since the virus swept across the globe, these predictions have been reviewed with some now believing that we will hit 10% in 2021! Cash Transactions have infact halved since the start of the pandemic. It looks like the UK is taking steps towards a cashless society and embracing contactless payments such as card and mobile.
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Mobile
NFC enabled devices can also accept proximity mobile payment options from providers such as Apple Pay, Google Pay and Samsung Pay. Accepting payments from these providers will help your company stay up to date. Nearly 40% of smartphone users are predicted to use proximity payment in 2021, so take the opportunity to integrate proximity mobile payment options into your business.
- Third Parties
Is your business set up on Deliveroo, Just Eat or Uber Eats? Using the SPARK Terminal you can note any payments that come through from third parties so that all the important payment data shows up in the end of day report.
2. Make it Simple
Consider whether your payment journey easy to navigate. Customers can get frustrated and discouraged with processes that require that they set up a new profile, are directed to other pages, or are asked lots of questions about their personal information. Don't confuse or overwhelm customers - keep the process quick and simple.
Splitting the bill can often cause issues, take time and be stressful for your staff and customers. Tailor the payment experience to your customers using our split bill function offered as standard on SPARK handheld or EPoS devices. This customer focused feature allows bills to be split by person, item, or average preventing human error and frustrated customers.
3. Security
Customers are becoming increasingly cautious about their personal information, especially when it involves their hard earned money. Handle their payment information in a secure manner using verified systems they can rely on.
SPARK has partnered with Elavon, one of the largest merchant banks in Europe, and Anderson Zaks to create a secure and reliable payment process for your business, SPARK Pay. Our SPARK Pay enabled handheld devices are the next generation of PDQ systems with the latest smart technology built within. Our Cloud based eco-system allows our SPARK Pay devices to be on the cutting edge with continuous security and quality of life updates to ensure your payment processing is always easy, reliable and secure.
4. Speed
Make sure the payment process is fast. Customers expect the experience to be streamlined and efficient, they certainly do not want to be kept waiting. Payment transactions need to be processed quickly, making sure the money is swiftly and successfully moved from bank account to bank account. SPARK Pay offers a very competitive turnover rate for transaction speeds.
End of day reports can be tedious and time consuming. Having a SPARK Pay enabled device instead of a standard PDQ will allow you to eliminate 15 minutes off the end of day read. How, I hear you ask? Well, SPARK Pay is an integrated service that transfers data automatically to your end of day report, meaning the need to manually input data twice is removed. You will not have to cross-check between your PDQ and end of day report as all the information will already accurately be stored there. It removes the chance of human error and helps you to access all the information you need quickly and clearly at the end of a long day.
5. Lower Fees
Look out for high payment transaction rates. Lots of SPARK's competitors will offer heavily discounted or free card readers / PDQs, but will then charge higher transaction fees to make back the money. SPARK Pay has a highly competitive rate!
Ultimately, modern day customers demand convenience and security. They want a payment process that can be trusted. By applying the different suggestions put forward in this blog, you will be able to positively enhance customer experience, inspire customers to spend more, stay competitive, modern, and encourage customer loyalty. With SPARK Pay being released very soon, you are going to want to find out more! Click the button below.
