#ferhanpatel

Fifty years ago, people expected to pay with cash more often than not when they went to purchase a product or service. Nowadays, the world of payment is entirely different. Because we have the internet at our beck and call at all hours of the day from numerous different types of devices, whether they are handheld or desktop devices, people’s expectations have skyrocketed of companies both large and small.

This new found sense of urgency in gaining information and completing previously complex tasks in seconds from anywhere in the world has proven to improve business’ abilities to meet customer needs in new and profitable ways. On the contrary, this has also costed some companies their competitive edge. Because people have a much smaller tolerance for delayed gratification, it is only getting harder for companies, particularly smaller companies, to stay relevant. Customers, although well meaning, demand access to a company’s products and services now, not later.

Because technology has overwhelmingly made conducting business easier than in previous years, companies now have the ability to save a fortune on business expenses. This, however, only remains true for companies who stay up to date with all the latest technology and trends that customers adhere to. This disclaimer is absolutely essential for companies to understand. If businesses do improve their use of technology, but do not stay competitive in their use of FinTech, then their efforts may prove to be pointless and detrimental financially.

So, what does a company do in light of these ever-changing customer expectations, demands, and behaviors?

Conduct an Internal Audit

To start, a company should conduct an internal audit. They should ask themselves the following questions to complete this audit:

What technology do we use to conduct business right now?

Why do we use the technology we use?

How do we use the technology we use?

Are there any possible ways we could use technology to (1) save us money, (2) automate processes, or (3) earn us money?

How do our customers like to pay for our products and services?

Could we potentially use technology to make the payment process and customer experience more pleasant for customers?

Answering these questions may take having meetings with the company or select business partners. This process can take time. That is why the sooner you can conduct this audit, the better. Once you have an answer to each of these questions, it is time focus on research. Having answers to these questions will automatically and vastly trim down the amount of research you need to do to stay up to date with your customers expectations and behaviors.

Implement Regular and Good Study Habits

The three main things you can do to stay abreast with the latest technological advancements that are particularly related to your industry are through (1) reading, reading, and more reading, (2) networking with other business owners, and (3) keeping a technologically savvy friend close.

If you have done all the things I discussed in this blog, then you are well on your way meeting and exceeding your customers’ changing expectations and behaviors.

I remember many years ago talking with one of the early investors in Stripe.  He told me that Stripe built a PSP/PF platform and their target market was Developers.  My initial reaction was, “another gateway”, as there were already so many on the market.  Companies were already building on top of Vantiv and Wells Fargo.  In retrospect, I was so wrong.

However, Stripe did something remarkably different.  By targeting Developers, they realized that Developers were the decision makers most of the time when a business owner asks them to “setup payment processing for me”.  With Stripe, developers were now able to setup the account within a few hours, instead of the traditional multi-stage multi-day application process through the traditional players like PayPal, Braintree, Moneris, Chase…   This revolutionized the online payment processing world…. and it’s now going offline.