B2C payments are always on my mind and I don’t believe that’s an accident or some sign that I might be a workaholic.
The fact is, I enjoy my time as an independent consumer equally as much as working in the payments industry; the exception being PTO when my consumer persona completely runs amok. But I always seem to take that experience back to work and apply it to product development. So when I’m thinking with my team about B2C payments solutions, we’re also sharing a lot of our own consumer experiences and those end up accounting for the fundamentals: we want things to be simple and modern without feeling like a “big change,” and we want things to be fast. Especially – especially – when it comes to refunds.
If that’s a trade secret then I’m happy to reveal it because, in my opinion, B2C money movers are serving themselves in a way. We’re all consumers, and if we aren’t doing good work then we’re going to feel it outside of work, too.
In any case, that’s exactly the process we took at U.S. Bank when we concepted and developed “Payee Choice.” Digital B2C payments solutions aren’t limited to just a small handful of industries or use cases; rather, they can apply to anyone, anywhere there is room to improve a payment experience (for everyone at MPC21, I know I’m preaching to the choir here). We set out to deliver the payment experience we desired as consumers ourselves and it just landed.
*But you don’t have to take my word for it …*
Some of our early adopters and partners in higher education agreed to share their story after just a brief implementation and test period. Payments professionals know those can be the most trying times for a new solution, but I’m convinced our development method paid off because they experienced some impressive results in a very short time. And the best part is they were able to meet their next-gen-digital-native student bodies on their terms and deliver simple, modern, fast funds when it counted.
What more could a college student hope for?
It’s a quick read and I hope you’ll learn from it as much as I did. We’re continuing to indulge our consumer sides here at U.S. Bank and I’m looking forward to delivering more good experiences for us all. I’ll be speaking on a panel at the MPC21 U.S. Bank workshop “Changing the payments industry” and look forward to meeting and working with everyone.
Sometime between now and then you might find me next to a lake in Northern Minnesota, concepting up the next good consumer experience.
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AUTHOR
Mike Watercott
Mike is a Senior Product Manager on U.S. Bank’s Global Treasury Management Faster Payments team responsible for Disbursements via Zelle, Payee Choice, and Push to Card products. He joined the bank in 2016 and has over 15 years of treasury management experience. Mike is based in Minneapolis, MN, has a BA from Winona State University, and is a Certified Treasury Professional (CTP).
