Here’s your main takeaway from the past year: Businesses must offer a contactless customer experience. It’s what consumers are asking for in light of COVID. Plus, once you provide that safety and convenience, they’ll want it forever.
In fact, 51% of American consumers are already using some form of contactless payment, such as tap-and-go credit cards and mobile wallets, like Apple Pay, according to Mastercard Contactless Consumer Polling.
They’ve made the switch because they’re worried about the cleanliness of point-of-sale signature and touch pads. Plus, nearly three-quarters (72%) say they’d prefer to skip signatures altogether.
Speaking of signatures, do any of your customers even have a checkbook anymore? They are quickly becoming the dinosaur for exchanging funds.
However, your clients likely still want to pay through their checking account instead of credit cards (and you want to save on credit card fees). That’s where ACH comes in. With a payment processor like ThryvPay, you can offer both options, and know if the checking account funds are available immediately, which means: no more bounced checks.
Also, when you offer online payment options, you open your business up to more consumers and a greater geographic area. Bonus: Consumers who use mobile payments actually spend more — nice!
If we haven’t convinced you yet, consider that 57% of consumers say they’ll keep using contactless payments moving forward. Plus, loyalty is going out the window. Here’s a stat from The Financial Brand that you can’t overlook:
If price and selection were equal, 63% of consumers around the world would switch to a provider who installed contactless payments.
More than Payments
While payment processing is the top contactless priority, there are a few other ways you can stand out from the crowd by providing a safer way to do business with you. And it all comes down to getting digital.
We may be Zoom-exhausted, but it’s really been a technological godsend to many businesses. Whether it’s planning meetings, tutoring sessions, doctor’s appointments or estimate inquiries, virtual meetings are a necessity. But what about after the meeting?
Moving the conversation to text is a great way to ensure your customer or prospect follows up, especially considering that texts are read within three minutes from when they are received. And 90% of them get opened, which is leaving email marketing in the dust. Also, text marketing isn’t subjected to the same spam filters you may encounter with email.
Here are a few great tips for text marketing when you can’t see your customers face-to-face:
- Schedule messages between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. or 7 p.m. and 9 p.m., which is optimal for 9-5 workers.
- Send messages like appointment or service maintenance reminders, which encourage repeat buys.
- Schedule your text messages. Send a happy anniversary or birthday wish or any other relevant and timely content, which you can automate in advance with the right software.
- And while you’re at it, provide an invoice link via text, so your customers can pay right on their phone, which means no waiting to get paid!
Help for Business Owners
Offering a contactless customer experience sounds like a great idea, but how much work does it take? Since COVID started, 24% of small business owners are spending 5 to 10 hours each week on administrative tasks, eating into their “working” time.
But they’re looking for help from technology. While 13% are relying on technology more, they’re managing multiple apps and software programs, which only adds to the organizational issues, time invested and overall headache trying to give their customers what they want.
We created Thryv to help you manage your business and follow your customer’s journey as they do business with you. This is why we call it an end-to-end customer experience platform. As a bonus, it also helps you provide that contactless customer experience. With Thryv, you can:
- Eliminate credit card or hand-written check transactions with digital estimates, invoices and payments.
- Schedule, automate and send text and email marketing messages to keep your company top-of-mind with your customers.
- Offer 24-7 online appointment setting that your customers to manage on their own.
- Integrate your ecommerce efforts with Shopify, in Thryv’s App Market.
- Our newly updated client card-on-file allows you to see all client information, updates, activity and contact info all from one screen.
There’s so much more you can do with Thryv. For instance, Packages allows you to sell services in bulk, and Reputation Management can help you boost online reviews. Learn more about why businesses just like yours choose Thryv.
