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Aamoth mentioned he spent nearly 20 years in retail be- means the biller must contact the customer to secure an
fore establishing POPcodes to bring advanced messaging, alternative form of payment, which means more time and
content delivery and workflow management capabilities cost incurred," Hay said.
to the in-store point of purchase. His experiences at Ma-
cy's, Borders Books & Music and Domino's Pizza shaped PayNearMe helps billers reduce payment declines and
his belief in smart terminals as an ideal payment platform ACH returns by deploying business rules once a payer
for processors, merchants and consumers, he noted. reaches a certain number of declines; for instance, the
biller may decide that a customer who's had two NSFs in a
"When you consider the branding, messaging, training six-month period can only pay by debit card or cash, Hay
and support, automation, data collection, and ability to stated.
leverage smart devices to engage and sell more solutions
and services, literally every merchant—even the ecom- Noting that 48 percent of consumers surveyed like to split
merce ones—should have at least one," Aamoth said. bill payments across payment types (cash, Apple Pay,
Google Pay, Venmo, PayPal, credit card, etc.), Hay said
Bridge communication gaps PayNearMe and other paytech and fintech companies
Aamoth further noted that smart POS devices can be used work hand-in-hand with billers and merchant service pro-
for two-way communication, which can help merchant viders to address common frustrations, which can lead to
acquirers collect feedback and satisfaction scores directly a poor customer experience.
from their merchants, while providing a key help desk
metric to measure and improve performance. This com- "Billers should partner with payment technology compa-
bination of usage data and direct feedback can help ac- nies that can give payers access to the entire menu of pay-
quirers identify customers at risk of attrition, delivering ment methods to use as they see fit," Hay said. "Payments
insights that address concerns and drive customer reten- technology companies have a number of tools in their tool-
tion, he added. box to reduce reliance on customer service staff to handle
basic payment-related tasks. They can streamline autopay
Reflecting on his company's recent case study, Aamoth registration and provide new incentives to participate, like
noted that smart POS devices, used correctly, can be a being able to customize payment schedules."
game-changer. Digital unboxing, for example, can guide Listen to customers
new merchants through device setup, expediting activa-
tions and reducing the time it takes to process their first As the payments industry continues to navigate inflation,
transaction. Going forward, he said, merchants can access emerging technologies and geopolitical tensions, industry
FAQs and step-by-step instructions as needed, and receive leaders emphasized that paying attention to merchants
targeted notifications on their screens when they need to and their customers will pay dividends.
complete critical tasks.
PayNearMe found 62 percent of survey respondents had
"Acquirers, ISOs and their partners are investing heav- called customer service over the past 12 months. Surpris-
ily to introduce more value-added solutions to their mer- ingly, this included 58 percent of 18 to 29-year-old billers,
chants, and yet still struggle to sell and support them," researchers found, who were more likely to call than other
Aamoth said. "Smart terminals are bridging a key B2B groups when they weren't able to log in.
communication gap that has existed between merchant
service providers and merchants for decades, contributing Paytechs can make logins easier, Hay said, by sending
to low adoption rate for value-added services, high-churn, personalized payment links or QR codes to customers and
and billions in lost revenue." by ensuring all important account information is visible
on a payment screen. They can also send payment remind-
Ultimately, he added, these internet-connected devices ers by email, text or push notification so customers don't
will bridge even bigger B2C friction-points to create seam- miss a payment and have to contend with customer ser-
less experiences across consumer brands, advertisers, loy- vice calls and late fees.
alty platforms, and brick-and-mortar merchants and their
in-person and connected customers. "We know our payments technology and attention to bill-
ers' needs can alleviate a lot of frustrations and prepare
Partner with paytechs, fintechs customers for whatever economic uncertainties lie ahead,"
Anne Hay is senior vice president and chief marketing of- she said.
ficer at PayNearMe, a fintech company that develops tech-
nology designed to make it easier for businesses to manage Dale S. Laszig, senior staff writer at The Green Sheet and managing
and accept payments. The company's February 2023 study director at DSL Direct LLC, is a payments industry journalist and content
found the economy is impacting decline rates as consum- strategist. Connect via email dale@dsldirectllc.com, LinkedIn www.
ers dig deeper into wallets and savings to pay bills."These linkedin.com/in/dalelaszig/ and Twitter@DSLdirect.
issues are worrisome for billers not only because of the re-
turn fees involved, but also because each decline or return

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