One-to-one customer service touchpoints have become obsolete. It’s now all about one-to-many. When a customer reaches out about a problem, it’s rarely contained within a single product or service.
In the technology ecosystem, they’re interconnected devices and software that work together — and break together, too.
As a payment service provider, your customer's experience is largely dictated by the software and hardware that you’ve chosen to sell and support. They may or may not be able to parse out a problem that stems from a faulty card reader, a malfunctioning point of sale system or a dead router.
From their perspective, they just know that they aren’t able to process payments. That’s a poor experience.
With that added complexity comes new challenges. A customer is likely to take their business elsewhere if any one of those many connections doesn’t go well.
So what does this mean for payment service providers? Their survival depends on the quality of customer experience they provide more so than ever before. And the scope of that customer experience spans multiple products and services that comprise the merchant technology and payment service ecosystems.
Given the context of the emerging ecosystem economy, payment service providers have their work cut out for them.
Their clients are relying on them to ensure that the customer experience during the payment process is fast, secure and even enjoyable. A focus on customer centricity in this way is what will differentiate payment service providers and their clients from competitors in an increasingly tight market. It’s also true that a focus on the customer can drive growth and spur innovation — which benefits customers and merchants alike.
As a result of these new consumer trends, businesses have an opportunity to adapt new technology. As they do, they will rely more heavily on PSPs to provide service and support for these new technologies that customers are demanding.
Let’s take fintech, for example. The traditional banking sector is being disrupted. Millennials are less loyal to banks and eager to adopt new technologies. As they do, merchants will need PSPs to ensure smooth payment processing and top-notch customer support.
As this new market grows and the lines between products continue to blur, PSPs will make the difference for their clients through the quality of the customer experience that they help create.
Rather than have a myopic focus on products, PSPs must learn to double down customer service and support. That’s the surefire path to growth in the ecosystem economy.
