Contactless payments continue to grow in popularity and are essential for any organization looking to retain customers and grow. Text-to-Pay or Text2Pay is one form of contactless payment that every merchant needs to consider.
A recent market research study sponsored by Weave found that the ability to pay for goods and services from a mobile device is fast becoming a preferred payment method among customers of all ages and small business owners.
How popular? Thirty-five percent (35%) of customers surveyed prefer to pay by text messages. Sixty-two percent (62%) of consumers under 35 frequently pay with a text if the business accepts Text2pay as an option.
The same research showed that only four percent (4%) of businesses offer this payment option. Therefore, offering Text2Pay could give your business a competitive advantage since so few businesses are offering it.
Expand your market
The Weave research also revealed that only sixteen percent (16%) of small businesses offer more than three (3) payment options. From what we have already seen, the more options small businesses have to accept payments, the more they win over young customers. And who doesn’t want more customers? Forty percent (40% )of small businesses say that accepting more payment types will help them cater to young customers. You don’t want your business to be among the sixty percent (60%) offering fewer payment options, losing a growing customer segment to your competition.
When websites and text messages can be accessed from nearly anywhere, accepting payment by text is a clear next step for your growing business. So what exactly is Text2Pay, and how can you leverage it for your business? Here we give you everything you need to know about Text2Pay payment processing.
What is Text2Pay?
Text2Pay or Text to Pay is the process of accepting payment through mobile text messages or SMS. SMS payments (Short Message Service Payments) improve overall payment accuracy and efficiency.
Text2Pay can improve your cash flow while reducing the number of late payments. Recent research found the number one reason stated for a late or missed payment is I forgot. Timely Text2Pay helps eliminate the “I forgot” and reduces the number of accounts in collections. Both of which save your business time and money.
How Text2Pay payments work
With Text2Pay, you can send a payment request to your customer via SMS text, making it highly convenient to be paid. Since 98% of texts are opened and responded to within ninety seconds (90), waiting more than 20 minutes to respond to a text message is rude (Google). By sending a payment request via text, your customer is more likely to respond right away. If they store credit card information on their phone, and most do, they can quickly pay with just a few taps.
Loyal customers and those with an ongoing relationship with your business are likely to buy seven percent (7%) more and more often when e-invoicing and Text2Pay options are available. Our experience backs that up. When businesses offer their customers multiple payment options, sales grow, and revenues increase. It never hurts to provide more payment flexibility, convenience, and purchasing power in your customer’s hands.
There are two basic ways a business can use Text2Pay. One way provides your business with the ability to send initial payment links to your customers immediately after a sale. The other for text payment requests to be sent as reminders to your customers when payment is due.
How the process works
First, your customer opts in to accept text messages from your business account.
A quick note on consumer acceptance
The Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) went into effect in 1991 and has since been modified to include SMS/text messaging.
In a nutshell, the TCPA stipulates that businesses and organizations must receive express written consent from individuals before sending any auto-dialed SMS/text messages to them.
Obtaining an individual’s phone number—regardless of whether they are a potential lead, an existing client, a former customer, or a member of your group or organization—is not the same as receiving permission to contact them.
Back to the process
Your business can then send pay-by text prompts through text to the customer’s phone number.
The customer then enters their personal payment information
Within seconds, the customer receives a reply text confirming receipt of payment.
There is a cost
As with many things with life, Text2Pay isn’t free. As a business merchant, you will likely pay for every message sent and received, including opt-in and consumer responses. You also likely pay a monthly fee for the service.
How Using Text2Pay Payment Processing can Benefit Your Business.
When you consider the ninety-eight percent (98%) open rate and average ninety seconds (90) seconds response time to text messages, the time and effort going into building a text database for your business make sense. Building a text database not only speeds up your collection process and can double as a tool your business can use to communicate with your customers about future promotions and sales.
Wrapping it up
Text2Pay transactions have grown into a widely popular way for customers to submit payments. And, to remain competitive with younger buyers, your business needs Text2Pay and other digital payment options. That is why your choice of Text2Pay provider is critical. You want to work with a payment processing company that offers secure, cost-saving, and easy ways to accept not only Text2Pay payments but other card-not-present transactions.
The IntelliPay payment suite gives you access to all card-not-present and card-present payment options, plus the ability to schedule recurring payments, send text and email to pay payment requests, and so much more. Do you need to manage payments through multiple departments and locations? With our payment suite, you can do it all from a single cloud-based portal and dashboard.
As a leader in the payment processing industry, we can also show you ways your business can reduce or eliminate processing costs with 100% compliant customer pays for the processing cost options.
Interested in streamlining your operations and payments process with a suite customizable to the way you do business? Reach out to IntelliPay for a consultation today
