Effective use of digital channels and partnerships

A powerful customer experience is produced by a successful low-cost distribution plan that mixes the digital and physical. Banks and established acquirers rarely use a totally digital distribution and service approach, yet it may be the only way to access several tiers of customer excellence. Best practices include automatic onboarding, quick setup of web shops, intuitive user interface design, and straightforward post-sale data reconciliation. Effective utilization of digital channels and collaborations is essential for success in the SME sector, even for traditional payments acquirers. In actuality, physical stores and branches are the least desired, closely followed by the phone channel, while the internet is the preferred channel for payments for SMEs. SME service models are also changing from a reactive to a proactive approach, continuously offering new products to address changing corporate demands. This movement is being driven by the increased technical advancement of payments products and the growing chances for cross-selling. Cross-selling should be done mostly through direct channels with self-serve access, while human-based first sales and renewals may still be acceptable depending on region and economics, particularly by leveraging partnerships with platform players and cash register/enterprise software vendors. Daily customer support tasks can also be mostly handled via self-serve access technologies, with actual specialized coverage being saved for the most valuable clients with the most demanding requirements. SumUp, a UK payments fintech company that provides small businesses with lightweight, intuitive card readers, has teamed up with customer support company Solvemate to create an AI-powered chatbot that will help businesses expand their customer service. The chatbot has a 72 percent no-interaction resolution rate, which has helped the business cut the need for agent assistance by 22 percent. The secret to boosting sales and keeping clients is using sophisticated data. New businesses may now compete on price and innovative solutions because to readily available technology and rising demand for payment solutions. The most crucial deciding elements for B2B payment products are being satisfied by digital attackers' simple-to-use and simple-to-set-up solutions. Additionally, they have created cutting-edge goods at cost-effective pricing, presenting a strong argument for businesses to switch payment processors. Additionally, the difficult economic climate currently in place is placing existential pressure on a large number of SMEs, increasing price sensitivity for payments services. Accurate segmentation of the SME customer base is essential in this situation. In this situation, advanced analytics can significantly improve pricing, cross-selling, and retention. For instance, a large acquirer with a history of inconsistent pricing, little differentiation, and infrequent adjustments, as well as a merchant population with a wide range of profitability, increased revenues by about 17% using a pricing strategy combining conventional commercial excellence levers and cutting-edge analytics. Machine learning was heavily used to segment clients based on desired margin and likelihood to churn for these outcomes. The segmentation improves the execution of more-fore-more repricing by focusing on merchants with low turnover propensities and target margins below those of their category. The repricing was put into place in three waves each year, along with thorough and successful messaging outlining the advantages. In order to identify SME clients with high churn risk who should be excluded from repricing, the acquirer also developed an analytics model. This model allowed the acquirer to extract actual churn signals and take steps to win such customers back. Advanced analytics can be utilized to improve digital collections as well as optimize subscription payments. Because updating cards on file requires laborious, antiquated processes, card expiration is one of the most frustrating problems companies face when trying to keep clients. Many businesses in the industry automate updates to payment credentials while utilizing algorithms to lower client churn. Finally, cross-selling opportunities with current clients can be found with the aid of advanced analytics. For instance, website traffic statistics can be used to update client dashboards and provide suggestions for plan or other product improvements automatically.