“Following customers’ needs is always a sweet recipe for success”- Garrett Moon
When building out a software roadmap, technology leaders often find themselves adding in functionality or deploying major updates based on what they think their customers want or based on anecdotes without fully validating if the new features will be used. That’s where talking to your customers and understanding their pain points and needs makes a huge difference in the adoption of your technology and acquisition of new customers.
Like the quote says, if you provide for your customer’s needs, your company will be set up for success. Your software must benefit your customers, and their customers, in some way or you will see your revenue growth dry up.
Software benefits range from operational efficiency, enriched data analysis, real-time business reporting, improved customer experience and much more. However, a deep dive into payments technology might be what your software needs to provide revenue growth, customer acquisition and differentiation in the market.
What’s the best way to know what payments capabilities your customers need and want to thrive? There is no better way to know than by asking them. However, we have done some of the work for you by asking our customers and partners what they see as important payment methods.
All those we talked to agreed that standard payment options for in-person, mobile and online are table stakes. These payment necessities must be included in your product no matter what. However, there are several newer payment options that are at the forefront of digital payments and should be evaluated to determine if they will meet your customers’ needs. The 4 capabilities your users need are:
- Real-time payments/instant funding – the times of waiting for payments to come through in a few hours or funding to take place in days are over. Customers are looking for ways to keep their cash flow healthy with payments occurring in real-time along with instant funding/settlement. Imagine the positive cash flow impact on your customers when payments and settlement can happen instantly.
- B2B payments – payments in the B2B world have long been complex and slow. If your customer lives in the B2B space, they are likely frustrated with their invoicing payment process. Today, businesses can send and receive money in minutes as opposed to waiting net 30 or 60. Why not allow businesses to send money via your software to pay vendors, agents, or service providers. In addition, allow them to receive payments from their customers electronically within minutes instead of waiting for paper checks.
- QR codes – Although QR codes were introduced in 1994, took off in 2011, they declined, and most people thought they died off. However, the impact of COVID increased the need for digital options with many adopting the QR code again in 2020. Now, there has been a resurgence in businesses that want to use QR codes for payments. They are a quick and easy way to accept payments, especially in the retail and hospitality verticals.
- P2P payments – Consumers heavily utilized P2P payment methods over the past year in order to send money easily to friends and family via apps like Venmo & PayPal. With a comfort level in using these payment methods, consumers are open to using P2P payments for products and services at businesses. Incorporating these methods in your software will allow you to capitalize on this payment trend.
The next step in your software development is asking your customers what payment methods and functionality they need to be successful. You will likely hear some or all of the needs above. But it’s critical you validate this for your customer base and vertical niche. You might find there are one or two payment capabilities that stand out and are critical for your next deployment.
Once you meet (and continue to meet) your customer’s needs, you will start to see unparalleled growth for your software company.
