February 10, 2022

6 key reasons why your service business should take instant card payments

It’s a better customer experience

BACs payments are slow. Tedious. Clunky. Your customers hate them. It’s time to do your customers (and yourself) a favour and offer a better payment option. Imagine a world where your customers actually enjoy paying you. Because you’ve made it so easy for them to do so.

Todays tech moves fast and it’s finally brought business payments up to speed. So now, whenever you complete a job for a customer, they can pay for your service the same way they pay for everything else online. Fast. Easily. Using their card. Maybe even in one click if they’ve saved their card details.

Now let’s compare this to the old fashioned BACs payments. Imagine that every time you bought something you had to…

  1. ‘Add a new payee’ (using the sellers details),
  2. Pass security, 
  3. Assure your bank that you aren’t being scammed,
  4. Check the sort code,
  5. Check the account number,
  6. Reassure your bank you aren’t being scammed… 
  7. Start again because your online bank session ended and logged you out…

You’d lose the will to live. But the point is…

This is how your customers feel about paying for your services by BACs. It’s a terrible experience. And importantly - it puts them off paying you. That’s why businesses that don’t take card payments are paying the highest price.

You’ll get paid quicker

It sounds obvious. Yes, you’ll receive payment sooner when your customers pay you quicker. But think about all the benefits that come from that. When your customer pays by card, you’re able to instantly confirm a job. Instantly know that you can now go and source materials for a job. You can start the job sooner. Save time by buying materials in fewer trips.

You’re able to plan more effectively for the future. And ultimately, this lets you deliver a better service and run your business more efficiently.

Automated bookkeeping

Speaking of efficiency, let’s talk about automation. Wouldn’t it be great if your business books updated automatically every time your customers paid you by card? Well, they can. If you choose the right CRM for your service business, you can finally ditch that spreadsheet you hate updating. Because your  CRM will update it for you. Just connect whatever accounting doc you use (e.g. Xero, Quickbooks, Sage, even an Excel spreadsheet). Your CRM will do the rest. 

So every time your business takes an instant card payment, your accounting instantly updates too. And you don’t even have to lift a finger! Ideal.

It creates useful data (automatically)

If you aren’t using data to measure your success, then your business hasn’t reached its full potential. Tracking key metrics can increase your profits and help your business grow. And when you take instant card payments, each payment is tracked automatically. Pretty ideal.

 “But what should I track? And how?” You ask. 

Well, the two essential metrics you should track are your…

  1. Revenue received vs. Revenue Secured. 
  2. Quote conversion rate 

The problem is, many businesses aren’t set up to track their performance. The solution? Get a CRM. A good CRM will collect this data for you. And a great CRM will show you these metrics in a clear, concise way. 

Now you can see how your business is performing over time. The smart way. No need to waste time crunching numbers manually in Excel. Instead - use this time (and your new metrics) to plan effective improvements for your business. Double win.

Spend less time chasing payments

No one likes chasing payments from customers. It’s a waste of your time and causes all kinds of delays for your business. And guess what? Your customers don’t like being chased.

Catching them at the right moment is key. The best time to ask them for payment is within the quote or invoice (when you already have their attention). And if you offer an easy way to pay (i.e. instant card payments) you can seal the deal in just a few clicks. 

And the time you might have otherwise spent calling… texting… sending reminder emails… waiting… Can now be used effectively.

You’ll win more business

The highest price to pay here is losing out on business. Customers prefer to pay instantly by card. And as long as you only offer BACs, the businesses that are offering instant card payments will always have an advantage over you. 

BACs payments might cost you winning that job in the first place. You want to make it as easy as possible for your customers to pay you. Especially when taking deposits for a job. If you don’t, you might lose out to a company that does.

Think about it - one of your potential customers called Fred is on the fence. He wants some work done on his home and it’s a two horse race between your quote and Company B’s. It’s a tough call, but time is of the essence. Fred’s a busy man. He needs to make a decision now and get the ball rolling. Fred scrolls down through both quotes. They’re both matched on price and sent from respectable companies. Touch call. Until he spots the call-to-action at the bottom of Company B’s quote. 

With just a few clicks, Fred can pay a 10% deposit, tick a key item off his to-do list and move on to the next. 

And this way of thinking is quickly becoming the norm. It’s only a matter of time before instant card payments become an expectation rather than a feature. Wouldn’t you rather stay ahead of the game?

Fast cars, fast food, fast charging. Fast payments are just the latest change in the fast-everything revolution. And they come hand in hand with other speedy business tools like interactive quotes and e-signatures.

Ultimately, choice is king. Offering multiple payment options is the way to go, so you cover all bases and maximise your chance of winning business. For example, being able to pay by credit card is a huge game changer for some customers. Especially at the end of the month when people are waiting to get paid. Suddenly, that blocker of ‘not having enough cash’ goes away. You’re able to open your doors to more customers who can only pay on credit.

Get set up in minutes and start taking instant card payments

You’ve got the know how… now you need the product. If you choose Payaca for your business CRM, you can start offering your customers instant card payments in just a few clicks. 

We’ve partnered with Stripe and integrated their instant payment tech into our quotes and invoices. It’s the easiest and fastest way for your customers to pay you.

If you’re a Payaca customer, connect with Stripe now. If not, try Payaca for free and see what you’re missing.

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