A customer’s checkout experience is crucial. No matter how good the service was—or how much the customer ended up buying—if there is a breakdown during the checkout process, that’s the only thing that will likely be remembered. In today’s marketplace, it is more important than ever to have a frictionless customer experience or you will quickly find yourself losing money—and your customer base. Here are five ways to ensure a seamless customer experience during checkout.
1. POS Enabled Tablets
A great way to eliminate customers walking out on a purchase is by optimizing their checkout experience. One way you can do that is by implementing an efficient and secure payment process. For starters, consider getting rid of the big old clunky cash register to be replaced by POS enabled tablets. Tablets can fundamentally change the way your business runs and transform the entire customer experience.Tablets allow the checkout process to happen instantly and without having to wait at a POS counter. Each device has a payment acceptance feature, such as a magnetic stripe reader for credit cards that can collect money on the spot. And with this, customer satisfaction increases as the incidence of abandoned carts decreases. The tablets are also excellent for the return process and customers can just find a salesperson anywhere in the store instead of having to find a payment counter.
2. Go Mobile
According to the 2019 POS/Customer Engagement Survey, 46% of retailers don’t use a mobile point of sale (mPOS) solution. That might be a mistake considering that 63% of all customers are using their mobile phone as they shop to compare prices and look for offers. A mobile POS essentially enables customers to process their payments the instant they make the decision to purchase. It ultimately helps avoid the customer changing their mind or reconsidering because the purchase has already been made. It also significantly decreases the time spent waiting in line to checkout, which improves the overall experience. mPOS offers an efficient checkout process at restaurants as well. By offering the ability to pay at the table, wait staff can collect payments instantly from their device. Faster checkout processes make customers happier and tables turn over quicker— which ultimately will be seen in your bottom line.
3. Offer a Variety of Payment Options
There is nothing worse than making your way to the front of the checkout line only to find your preferred payment isn’t an accepted one. Not only is this frustrating, it can be embarrassing for the customer as they have to walk away without any purchases. A customer-friendly check out process includes having the ability to pay with numerous tools, such as gift cards, credit cards, rewards points, e-checks, virtual wallets, plus many more. Make sure to include popular methods such as Amazon Payments or WePay . WePay is a platform payment company that can handle complex payment requests. It offers customers to pay through many sources including Apple Pay and Android Pay. PayPal is another popular payment solution that is simple to set up and affordable. Stripe—which is tailored for e-commerce—takes online payments and is customizable and easy to set up. The point is to offer a variety of payment options so that the customer always has a choice.
4. Payment Partner is Key
Every single transaction that is processed through your business depends on you having the right payment partner. With a payment partner, you are looking for good security, a high level of trust and someone who is efficient. You also want to make sure they are up on all the latest technology so that your customers transactions are processed in the best possible way. For example, a partnership between PayPal and Google allows for customers to pay for purchases at brick and mortar shop using their PayPal balances by way of Android Pay. This makes them competitive with Apple Pay but more importantly, provides some 200 million customers a seamless shopping experience. Having the right payment partner will ultimately improve how the customer experiences the checkout process.
5. Order and Pay Online, Pick Up at the Store
A great way to bypass nightmares at checkout is by offering customers the ability to make a purchase on line and then simply drop in and pick up their items at the store. By doing this, you not only allow the customer to avoid long lines, but to avoid the cost of shipping as well. If done right, buying online and picking up in the store can be an effective way to allow customers the ease of shopping from home while at the same time the instant gratification of picking up their purchase the same day.
How customers pay for goods are a large part of their satisfaction experience. By utilizing technology—such as tablet POS and mPOS—as well as a wide variety of quick and flexible platforms, you are setting them up to have the most enjoyable and seamless checkout experience possible.
Contact Transaction Services to learn how we can help you provide the best possible checkout experience for your customers. Learn more … click here.