How Payments Power Experience

[Sponsored News]

Payments in the consumer space have been in the midst of a Fintech revolution. The important role payments play have always been recognised in the consumer world and especially by online retailers. Combine that with the rise of Uber and launch of mobile payment services such as Apple Pay and it’s exciting times for seamless, easy payment experiences.

But what about the B2B space? Well, it’s not quite as advanced. In the travel sector, B2B payments are still often handled manually, which wastes valuable time and resources. Not only that, but it weakens the employee experience (EX) which can be detrimental to the overall customer experience (CX) they’re delivering. We believe that payments remain an untapped opportunity for travel firms to drive growth, profitability, and overall business success.

In the fast-moving, competitive travel industry, customer experience is an important differentiator for brands. There’s lots of evidence of the lucrative benefits of a thought-out, brand-aligned customer experience. For example, Forrester reported that just a one-point gain in the CX Index was worth US$65 million to an upscale hotel chain. And global CX consultants Smith+Co found that a 5% increase in customer loyalty can produce profit increases of between 25-85%, demonstrating the huge returns that a good CX can deliver.

So how can B2B payments drive CX?  Here, we look at how travel firms can use payments to improve CX and drive business performance:

1.       Offering a broader breadth of suppliers: Everyone loves choice. It’s the ability to feel like an individual that has become the energy behind customer experience. If we look to travel, we’re seeing people move beyond prescribed package holidays, wanting to pick unique experiences and travel to more exotic locations. Our exclusive whitepaper includes a comparison between the range of destination listings and the number of customer recommendations a travel agent receives. It reveals that those offering more choice, have more satisfied customers who are prepared to share their experience with others.

2.       Better supplier network management: Offering more destinations means expanding the network of suppliers, currencies and security checks required. The more admin effort needed to manage your supplier network, especially where suppliers are in different locations and use different currencies, the more resources are diverted away from value-add activities. A Virtual Account Number (VAN), which is an automatically generated 16-digit Mastercard number, makes payments between travel agencies and their suppliers easy. And, because a unique number is used for each new booking or payment transaction, it’s safer and protects against supplier default.

3.       Flow-on payment impacts: We know that breadth of choice offered by travel agents is a critical element for improving customer experience. While I’ve spoken about the choice of destinations, this is equally relevant to the choice of payments. Do you ever think that your B2B payment choice might actually limit the number of accepted customer payment methods? With the travel industry becoming an instant platform of varied choice, B2B activity around transactions and bookings must evolve to support B2B payment expectations.

4.       Quality of EX: Employee experience is closely linked to customer experience, and the choice of systems, tools and processes directly impacts employee experience. Critical but time-consuming tasks like payment reconciliation can impact employee motivation and reduce the time available for more interesting and higher value activities such as spending time with customers. Indeed, a chart of Glassdoor employer ratings of top OTAs against customer advocacy ratings illustrated a direct correlation between staff satisfaction and the willingness of customers to recommend the brand. That’s where choosing faster, easier and safer payment solutions comes in. By automating these critical – but energy and motivation-sapping mid and back office functions –  staff can get back to doing what they truly love about their work.

By making the entire payment process quicker and more efficient, you can improve employee experience and drive customer advocacy. There’s a reason why Amazon and Uber have been so successful. They haven’t just focused on building attractive websites or apps. The technology underpinning the services are the true innovation. So, while CX should always be a constant priority for travel companies, it should start with the effectiveness of their back-office operations.

For more information on how improved payment processes can boost customer experience and drive business performance for travel companies, see the "Experience Counts: an untapped opportunity to drive business performance" whitepaper.