“Cash, check or charge.”
It used to be that the owner of an establishment was the one who decided how their goods or services would be paid for during a transactionAn act between a seller and a cardholder that results in either a paper or an electronic representation of the cardholder’s promise to pay for goods or services received from the act. The action between a cardholder and a merchant that results in financial activity between the merchant and cardholder’s account..... Their word was final and it was based on which method the merchantA business that accepts credit cards for goods or services. was most comfortable with.
According to a recent survey by ControlScan and the Electronic Transactions Association (ETA), that could be changing.
ControlScan and ETA polled hundreds of small-to-midsized business owners to find out how consumer preference in payment transactions impacts the payment options they provide.
The results showed that 25% of SMBs agreed with the statement: “If our customers want it, we’ll make it happen.”
But, with payment technology advancing at lightning-fast speeds, SMBs have a tough time keeping up — mostly in making the investment necessary to stay current. Compounding the issue even further, nearly half of the of the SMBs said their current POSThe time and place a sale takes place. Also refers to the devices used to transmit the credit card transaction. provider hasn’t even discussed emerging technologies with them.
The survey indicated that when selecting point of sale technology, data security and customer experience matters more than cost in decision making.
In fact, 94% percent of SMBs said data security and 91% said customer experience is highly important to the process of acquiring new payment technologies. Eighty-one percent conceded it was also highly important to know how much it was going to cost to implement and maintain new systems.
According to the survey, software and technology developers (43%) are the most consumer-driven industry, followed by retailers (31%) and hospitality – businesses like restaurants or hotels (29%), when it comes to consumer demands shaping payment technology decisions.
Not-for-profit (12%), healthcare (16%) and educational industries (17%) are least likely to be influenced by consumer demand.
National Merchants Association knows the importance of data security and the customer experience and we have a team of experts that can keep your payment technology on top of the game. Contact NMA today to discover how to take your business to the next level.