Providing virtual terminal payment functionality enhances experiences for customers – and call center employees.
Providing fast, convenient customer service is fundamental to successful call center management. However, consumers continually seem to raise the bar as their behaviors evolve. At one time, convenience meant enabling customers to call rather than drive to a physical location to make purchases, request service or engage in other ways. In today’s digital world, customers expect omnichannel experiences, assuming a contact center associate will be able to access their online activity and purchase history, provide seamless service, and quickly and easily manage payment transactions.
How Call Center Solutions are Evolving to Meet Demands
To gain the agility, capacity and functionality necessary to lead in customer service, call centers are transitioning their infrastructure, management applications and data to the cloud. Cisco’s 2020 Global Contact Center Survey reports that 62 percent are implementing or planning to launch cloud contact centers through 2021. Cisco also found that 93 percent consider technology as “very important” to creating better customer experiences.
Additionally, Deloitte has found that 76 percent of businesses with call centers are investing in artificial intelligence (AI) and process automation for new capabilities and greater efficiency.
Call center solutions are evolving to provide faster service, intelligently prioritize responses, ensure consistent customer experiences across all channels, and analyze data to inform more efficient operations and visibility into performance per associate or company-wide.
Modern solutions can also improve employee satisfaction and company culture. Call center associates are often called upon to multitask, moving in and out of applications to access customer information, inventory or tech availability, and accept payments. Making life easier for associates can help to reduce employee turnover, improve performance, and ultimately enhance customer experiences.
One of the most impactful tools that call centers can deploy to improve both customer and employee experiences is a virtual terminal solution.
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The Benefits of Virtual Terminal
Accepting payments over the phone can create bottlenecks for a call center team. Customers and associates under pressure to achieve target numbers can find legacy card payment transactions slow and frustrating.
Virtual terminal payment solutions allow call centers to accept card or ACH payments quickly and easily. The associate clicks a link to access the virtual terminal site, in effect, turning their computer, laptop, or even a smartphone into a payment device. Then, the associate enters card numbers and verification, such as the three- or four-digit customer verification value (CVV) code, ZIP code, and completes the transaction.
Leading solutions, such as Exact Payments Virtual Terminal, are ideal for contact centers because there’s no limit to the number of users. The quick keys option makes transactions even faster, which is especially crucial for high-volume operations. Also, repeat customers can use payment tokens to process payments, elevating customer convenience even more. The associate only needs to tap “reprocess” rather than ask the customer for payment information. And, because the token, not actual card data, is stored, the feature is PCI-compliant and secure.
Call centers that manage multiple locations or even multiple brands can also use Exact Payments Virtual Terminal to accept payments from any customer without logging in and out of different accounts. The solution even gives businesses the option to create web payment forms so that customers can enter their payment data when an associate texts the link.
Deliver Experiences Consumers Expect
Salesforce’s 2020 State of the Connected Customer report states that 66 percent of customers expect companies to understand their needs, and 76 percent expect consistency when they engage with different departments across the organization.
Call center management solutions can help businesses meet those expectations especially when an associate can simply click a link to access a virtual terminal and quickly complete a payment transaction.
To learn more about Exact Payments Virtual Terminal’s industry-leading features and how easy it is to use, contact us.