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."

"When a payment goes right, no one cares because it's just embedded into the experience," Lily continued. "But when it goes wrong, it's the end of the world, right? The stakes are high."

Creating a user-centric payments process can be a strategic advantage for businesses. It highlights the importance of optimizing payment processes to enhance customer experience and drive business growth. Lily explained that customers today expect a "rideshare kind of payment" from every vendor they work with.

"The last best customer experience that your customer has, regardless of where they have it, is the baseline of what their expectations are for their next experience," Lily said. "So, this seamlessness of a rideshare kind of payment, it is still important for utility companies and insurance companies and public sector companies to recognize that the citizen or the member, the customer that you are serving is experiencing the seamlessness of these transactions elsewhere in their lives, and that is informing their expectations."

As payment vendors strive to achieve greatness in their solutions, they can leverage emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI) to enhance their offerings. AI can help payment vendors improve the speed, accuracy and security of their transactions, as well as provide valuable insights for their partners. "AI is transforming payments," Jeff said. "It's helping us do things better, faster and smarter."

"Where we see AI, for example, in payments isn't in the generative AI, customer-generated content. It's about helping their payment partners be better for their customers," Lily said. "It's about navigating insights, navigating the report and using natural language to query data sets to get answers more quickly."

The Quest for Quality Solutions

Quality is the cornerstone of a great payment vendor's offerings. One sure way to ensure greatness, Lily said, is to make sure your company excels at the basics before adding the latest bell or whistle.

"Sometimes when people ask me about the future of payments, or what's hot and new and exciting in payments, the answer sometimes is… a little bit less exciting than they might imagine," she said. It's still important and strategic to figure out what payment methods customers want to be using, she added, but "at the end of the day, customers want to achieve their goals. They want better shopping experiences, or better experiences, full stop. Not necessarily better payment experiences."

The relationship between a business and a great payment vendor is a partnership of equals. It is a collaboration built on mutual respect, shared goals and an unwavering commitment to growth. A great vendor invests time in understanding the unique challenges and aspirations of their partners, crafting bespoke solutions that align with their strategic objectives.

Businesses looking for quality solutions should look for partners that can "help them optimize the [customer buying] experience on that front end, validating before the transaction to help them ensure that transaction is good," Jeff said. "And then, on the back end, being able to help them if a transaction is declined, with retries."

When embarking on the journey to find a great payments vendor, companies looking to provide a streamlined experience should consider the following:

• Strategic alignment: Seek a vendor whose vision aligns with your business goals and who can provide strategic guidance to navigate the payments ecosystem.
• Customer-centric approach: Choose a vendor that prioritizes the customer experience, ensuring that every interaction is a positive reflection of your brand.
• Compliant and secure: Ensure that the vendor has a strong track record of compliance, security and platform stability, safeguarding your business and your customers' data.

Great payment vendors are more than just service providers; they're catalysts for transformation. By focusing on innovation, quality, and strategic partnership, businesses can unlock the full potential of their payment solutions and thrive in the dynamic world of finance.

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