Good News: Customers Love Mobile Payments, Too

Last week, we looked at some of the benefits businesses get from accepting mobile payments with a Mobile Point of Sale system. But the business isn’t the only party to consider; what about the customer? If the customer doesn’t like something, then it doesn’t matter how much you love it. The customer is king.

Here’s the good news: Customers love mobile payments, too.

With the explosion of smartphones and tablets, consumers are not only more comfortable and confident using mobile devices, but they appreciate and even demand the convenience and immediacy of mobile technology whenever it’s available.

Several big brands have already made the mPOS leap, and the results are coming in—and they are good. For example, the casual dining restaurant Chili’s has installed more than 45,000 tablets across 823 of their locations around the country. Sales are up significantly, and so are the results of customer satisfaction surveys. It’s a win-win.

Related: Do You Accept Mobile Payments? 4 Reasons You Should

So what are the benefits customers see when they use Mobile Point of Sale? Here are a few of the most prominent.

Immediate Customer Service

With mPOS technology, customers get immediate service. Customer service reps can give the human touch and provide a level of service that technology cannot match, but sometimes a customer knows exactly what they want and they just want to get it, now. Looking at restaurants that are experimenting with mPOS, diners are ordering more drinks, appetizers, and desserts when they can just place the order on the device at their table than when they have to wait for a server. If a customer doesn’t know what to get, the server is irreplaceable—but when you already know what you want, having to wait for someone to get back around to your table is not only slower, but increases the chance of changing your mind if the service is slow for any reason.

Mobile payments provide immediate customer service whenever the customer is ready, not just when you are ready for them.

Faster Checkout
Those long checkout lines are not exactly any customer’s idea of a good time. Money is not the only thing customers spend; they also have to spend their time. The longer they have to wait to check out—after they’ve already decided to buy from you, even!—the less happy they’ll be. Some customers will be discouraged from buying at all if checkout is too slow. Or customers might be frustrated as they sit at a table, waiting for someone to come and take their payment. Mobile Point of Sale systems can speed the process dramatically, whether by completing checkout on the spot when customers find what they want or helping them check out whenever they’re ready instead of waiting for an employee.

Receipts by Email

Customers like having receipts of their purchases for what that receipt can do, whether for budgeting, deducting expenses, potential returns or exchanges, or any number of reasons. But they don’t necessarily like carrying around receipts, as physical objects. Has your wallet, purse, or car ever turned into a jumbled mess of crumpled slips of paper from a dozen different places? Mobile payments makes things easier for your customers, because they still get the benefit of what the receipt does without having to keep track of that tiny slip of paper. Receipts are delivered to the customer’s email address, making for paperless, easy filing: they can’t lose the receipt because they can always pull it up again in their inbox.

Inventory and Price Checks

Using mPOS also helps customers who are looking for information on inventory and pricing. When your store has mobile systems set up, it’s easy to look up whether an item is in stock, how much it costs, or what it would take to get it, instead of digging around in the back of the building and hunting for price tags. It’s an immediate answer to a customer’s question.

Related: Setting Up Your First Location

Accepting mobile payments is good for the business, but what makes it a real win is the way it makes life better for consumers. Come back next Wednesday as we conclude our mobile payments series with a look at the important factors you should consider when looking for an mPOS provider.

To learn more about the new mobile payment system from Bluefin Payments and GoSmallBiz.com, click below.

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