Redefining Merchant Services with Digital Experiences

As a merchant services provider, accepting electronic payments is an essential capability you offer. Although offering merchant services can be a lucrative business, you’ve traditionally had to invest significant resources, effort, and time to manage payment technology estates. Digitalizing tasks associated with estate management and customer support can simplify your operations, streamlining processes and resulting in better experiences for merchants – and for your team.

The Payment Technology Implementation Journey

When merchants sign with you, the process of payment technology estate management ordinarily proceeds step-by-step through specific milestones:

• Ordering: The process begins with you taking time with an account rep to place orders for the PIN pads or other payment devices your clients have chosen for their businesses.
• Configuration: Next, you arrange for device configuration with the solutions and applications necessary for your customers to accept various payment methods and optimize customer experiences.
• Monitoring and updates: Once the terminal is deployed, you set up a way to monitor the device, perform periodic health checks, and provide the reports your customers need for compliance.
• Ongoing support: If issues arise, your team must be available to answer questions and arrange for onsite or depot repair throughout the device’s lifetime.

Following the steps involved in traditional estate management processes requires heavy intervention from your team. The work involved may also lead to downtime and delays, which can diminish the merchant’s satisfaction with your services and negatively impact customer retention.

The Difference Digital Experiences Make

Instead of continuing to rely on time-consuming and costly processes, merchant services providers now have the option to digitally transform payment technology estate management with new solutions leveraging artificial intelligence (AI) and other advanced technologies:

• Ordering: Intelligent AI chatbots and virtual assistants streamline the ordering process. With these solutions, it isn’t necessary to wait for assistance from a sales representative or technician. You place orders on your own. You can also offer merchants self-service options for ordering. If your clients want to order device accessories, replacement parts, receipt paper, or even upgrade a solution subscription, they can place those orders directly through the vendor’s online store.
• Configuration: When terminals arrive, merchants can scan a QR code on the device and use an app or enter a serial number into a web portal. This gives merchants the autonomy to set up their devices without intervention from your team. A comprehensive platform will enable customizing tools for the merchant’s industry, region, and preferred language.
• Monitoring and updates: A modern estate management system gives you the ability to monitor devices to ensure they’re online and to update them remotely.
• Ongoing support: The support requests you receive over the life of a payment device can range from basic to complex. Instead of relying only on a help desk, you can leverage AI chatbots, a knowledge base, and video tutorials to give your customers access to information to answer their basic questions quickly. You can also leverage tools like click to chat or click to call, online service requests, and RMS generation and automated tracking so merchants can communicate their needs more easily.

An intelligent app also allows merchants to perform troubleshooting on their own. By answering questions, the merchant can communicate issues to an intelligent chatbot, which can provide information or even guide the merchant through the steps to resolve them. When merchants need your assistance, you can use remote access and screen sharing to resolve some issues, decreasing the number of onsite and depot repairs necessary.

What Digitalization Does for Merchant Services Providers’ Businesses

While the operational and customer experience benefits of transitioning to digital experiences are clear, it can also benefit a merchant services provider’s overall business in several impactful ways:

• Increased customer satisfaction

Digital experiences lead to faster response times and issue resolution, which impact customer satisfaction. Zendesk’s CX Trends 2023 reports that 72% of customers want immediate service. As business owners digitalize their own operations with artificial intelligence and automation, they’ll expect their merchant services and other providers to do the same. Furthermore, greater customer satisfaction can lead to higher customer retention and greater customer lifetime value.

• Meet the demand for self-service

Gartner research found that customers prefer self-service when reaching out for customer support, and it’s even more important to younger generations. The survey revealed a “self-service or no-service” mindset among Gen Z and millennials that can influence their purchasing decisions. Enabling intelligent chatbots and multichannel access lets your customers find the information they need, when and how they prefer.

• Lower costs for estate management

Enabling self-service options and automating tasks means your team will spend less time managing payment terminals and PIN pads. With streamlined processes, you can reallocate labor to other responsibilities, possibly even focusing on more revenue-generating activities.

• White labeling elevates your brand

When you work with the right partner, you can offer these services under your own brand, helping to differentiate your business in your market and increasing the value that merchants see in a partnership with your business.

Overall, by digitalizing payment technology estate management, you can see a marked improvement in customer-facing and operational KPIs, keeping your business on the right track to growth and success.

How to Make it Happen

Ingenico is launching the MyIngenico App, which enables self-service and assists you in providing the best possible service. Part of Ingenico’s estate management solutions, merchant digital experience streamlines all aspects of payment device estate management. Contact us to see how it will benefit your business.