Unlocking the Secrets to a Great Payment Vendor Partnership: A Discussion Featuring Forrester’s Lily Varon and CSG’s Jeff Kump
To stay ahead of the competition, businesses must constantly seek partnerships that can propel them to new heights. One of the most important partnerships a company forges is with its payment platform provider. Choosing the right payments vendor sets the foundation for innovation, reliability and strategic prowess.
How do businesses know when they’ve gotten the payments partnership right? Jeff Kump, CSG Forte president, and guest speaker Lily Varon, Principal Analyst at Forrester dug into that question in a recent webinar, “What Good Looks Like: Making Payments Your Competitive Advantage.” They delved into the nuances that elevate a good payment vendor to greatness and offer insights into forging a partnership that stands the test of time.
Lily and Jeff discussed how companies can harness the payments process as a competitive advantage, explored various operational and technical aspects of payments systems. They also explained customer expectations and how to improve the customer experience.
Good vs. Great
A great payments vendor distinguishes itself by creating solutions that are efficient and intuitive, Lily explained. End users are looking for seamless transactions from service platforms that combine technology with user-centric design, creating a system where every feature resonates with the needs of the business as well as the customer.
When a vendor is good, they understand the strategic value of providing insights into payments and they’re making sure their platform is up to speed, Lily said. “Their payment optimization story is more than just the transactional piece,” she added. “But when we think about greatness, I think it is about becoming a strategic partner to their merchants and positioning themselves in that capacity.”
Payment vendors in today’s market can position themselves as visionaries that anticipate market trends and adapt swiftly. Consumers expect the businesses they’re buying from to do the heavy lifting for them, including mitigating fraud risks, without any friction or barriers to payment.
The New Customer Expectation: Forgettable Payments
Jeff gave the example of innovation in the rideshare experience that sets a standard of a “forgettable payment” and a better experience. “I think that does reset the expectation of the consumer of, ‘I don't need to think about the payment. You have my information, you take care of it, don't bother me.’”
“I love that ‘forgettable payment,’” Lily responded, “because—it almost feels sacrilegious as a payments nerd to say it—but we call payments the invisible invaluable for that very reason.”